a certain indefinite number of Petrarchan “sonnets” (96)
Ordinarily I don’t publish so much poetry at Theoria-press, and instead try to provide mostly essays with an odd poem or sonnet occasionally interspersed among them. But the Muse’s visits have outstripped my ability to keep pace with prose pieces so readers who prefer essays should peruse the archives of this site, which are replete with them. Also, I should acknowledge that the formal aspect of this “Petrarchan sonnet” is liberally conceived so it’s unnecessary to alert me that at “Petrarchan sonnet” with 15 lines and an unorthodox rhyme-scheme is like a quartet with 5 members, though reproof is always welcome from anyone who feels so moved.
DOES SOME other soul know just how hard you’ve tried?
how all this time upon this door you knocked?
and then you find the door was never locked
when it swings ajar, sweeping open wide,
you find that you were knocking from inside
and that your forward path was never blocked
yet, ankles bound by fear, you never walked,
by fears that made you wish to flee and hide
beloved, kick off your shoes, the water’s warm
everything you lost will one day return
float back to you but in some other form
to trace these seaborn pathways we must learn
by which each thing must to persist, transform
these secret metamorphoses discern
we can’t have lost what we can never earn
Deep and thank you