Sonnet

Making a Difference

If asked to speak I don’t know what to say.
Words appear and then refuse to be.
Mumbling nonsense I can’t clearly see
How dots from here to there could find their way.
Even so those dots begin to play
And laugh as they enjoy confounding me
And jeer when I pretend some honesty,
But nonetheless I’ll risk these words and pray:

  Make a difference. Show us something new.
  Judge us with Your mercy.  May we ask
  For wisdom so we'll see the pointing sign?
  Lead us so that we may more align
  With what You know is now our better task
  And not what we might like to see come true.

Linked to dVerse Meeting the Bar. I am hosting today. The theme is to write a poem with fourteen lines. There’s no other constraint. I used a Petrarchan sonnet here, but no form is required. Come and join us with a poem of your own.

I heard earlier this week that the first Thursday in May is the National Day of Prayer in the United States. This has been happening on some day in the US since 1952. With our health and our economy at risk, I’m offering this sonnet as a prayer. Hopefully I am not offending the God who makes a difference with what I’ve said.

Fourteen Lines

We hope we built it on the solid stone.
Earth that would get dizzy makes things wave.
We used what we were given, staying brave,
Though walls might fall and we’re left all alone.
We did avoid the sandy, shifting shore
Licentiousness had offered in its hand.
We chose perhaps unjustly the well-planned
When legalism offered frowning chores.

Looking high we see dark skies above.
The morning brings us color from the sun.
We built our best, remained in spite of doubt
Talking from our hearts to only one,
Walking on the waters of his love,
Confidently breathing in and out.

Linked to dVerse Open Link Night where Kim, Writing in North Norfolk, is hosting.

I started focusing on poems with fourteen lines. Here is an attempt at a Petrarchan sonnet.

Order

There’s order somewhere in this garden space.
I tuck the sheets and toss the blanket tight.
I wash the dishes daily, wipe my face
To carry with me courage for the night.

Dreams help order what I ought to do 
Summarizing stuff with morning light.
Today there may be some I shall get through!
I’ll plant them. Watch them grow and check their height.

This all depends on trust. That’s hard to find.
I know that if I did this on my own 
I’d often go astray or fall behind.

Who is that hoeing offering his aid?
I tend to think I’m on this walk alone,
But we’re both planting dreams though some may fade.

Linked to dVerse Poetics where Laura Bloomsbury offers the theme of “order” featuring Elizabeth Jennings. My poem is based on thinking about Jennings’ sonnet The Garden. I took the photos some time ago with different seasonal views of the Chicago Botanic Garden.

 
 
Contented pelicans stand on the shore.
Clouds look solid then they move away.
Water’s back and forth. It will not stay.
With all of this do I need something more?
What is it that I’m always looking for?
There’s the Sun and here’s a newborn day.
There’s a moment somewhere bright or gray
When every breath blows past a bolted door.

I’ll sing these songs of praise and some again
Repeating them like waves whose joy may reach
And soak the toes of walkers on the sand.
Then when my time is done and I head in
And when fresh water smooths this sandy beach
May love songs still enchant this fairy land.

Linked to dVerse Meeting the Bar where Bjorn is hosting with the sonnet form. This sonnet has a rhyme scheme abbaabba cdecde. It is associated with sonnets written by Petrarch.