Saturday, June 11, 2005

Serial Sonnet: Rose-breasted Grosbeak Act I

Dickens did it. So why not a sonnet. For the next four nights, I am in a stupor to present a Son Rivers sonnet in four parts. But let’s first discuss Jencks and postmodern poetry, and what we’ve learned. Something about old traditions and new games. I’m all for that.
Rose-breasted Grosbeak

At first I glimpsed the blueprint on its back
—a well-defined rectangular design
in biblical white and systematic black—
and thought it just an artificial spine
I’m beginning to think that maybe some poetry took a wrong turn following painting; it should have ran after architecture instead. Or am I being middlebrow? I knew I should have had them trimmed.

2 comments:

Suzannah said...

I was looking for a poem on a grosbeak, believe it or not, and came upon these four lines. Do you have the rest of the sonnet?

4:27 PM
son rivers said...

Hi Suzannah

I wrote and posted this in 4 consecutive posts I believe. Here's the whole thing:

Rose-breasted Grosbeak

At first I glimpsed the blueprint on its back
—a well-defined rectangular design
in biblical white and systematic black—
and thought it just an artificial spine
on some mechanical contraption made
by engineers intent on miniscule
flights of original—although retrograde—
technology—high-powered by fossil fuel.
But then I saw that vivid patch of red
and knew such logic quite illogical.
Instead, its cold-blooded but spirited
existence was something more than physical—

4:46 PM

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)