A Darkness In August…
/A Darkness in August (for Surreptitious Sonnet Day, August 3rd)
Surreptitious Sonnet Day is August 3rd. Why? On August 3rd, 1906, lawyer and poet Wallace Stevens wrote in his journal: “Engaged at the office all day on a sonnet—surreptitiously.”
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Today, my muse, amusingly, is shy,
her willy-nilly teasing skillfully
tempts me to write some sonnets on the sly—
though surreptitiously, quite willfully.
Is August Third a day that’s so august
mere sonnets cannot dignify its reign
and poets, dreading editors’ disgust,
must write, instead, vanillanelles, plain Jane?
How can it be that just one day a year
we can’t reveal deep beauty in our hearts
with structures lithe and lovely we hold dear,
instead, espousing other forms of farts.
Tradition’s contradictions, long conversed,
now means this cursèd day will leave us cursed.
By Ken Gosse
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