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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