Barbara Eaton won second place in the February Poetry Challenge. Her "love poem" has the twist that it recognizes that sometimes the loving thing to do is to let someone go. In another twist, Eaton has borrowed the first two lines of William Shakespeare's 30th sonnet, and taken them in another direction. Here is her poem
Sonnet 30
When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
I summon up remembrance of things past,
the things I’ve tried to do, that came to naught,
the things retained, that were not meant to last,
I think on thee, dear friend, my dearest love,
my one misdeed, my thirty-year mistake,
my many misperceptions, and, my love,
my trials of your patience. For my sake,
my dearest sweet, forget you knew me when
all innocence, I thought our love was true.
Forget I promised to be friends, and then
forget me, even if I plead with you
one more appeal, for I already know
the verdict is that I should let you go.
~ Barbara Eaton
You can read Shakespeare's 30th sonnet at http://www.famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/william_shakespeare/poems/1698.
Here is the winning poem by Cece Box:
It’s not exactly cufflinks, but to me, you’re more beautiful wearing poetry
If I did not have you to love
How meaningless would be
This Valentine
Receiving-and-the-giving-of.
How flavorless and without flair
Would be this life, these lives,
The hour-by-hour-living-of.
If I did not have you to love
And the by-you-being-loved-in-turn
Sure feeling-of
My poet’s license would have been
By now assuredly revoked
The cause for which
This poem has been revealing of.
~ Cece Box
Box's use of language is playful and musical. The title is clever; it takes a little thought to see how it relates to the poem. The hyphenated phrases are fun. She turns grammar on its ear, ending four lines with with that little preposition, "of," but in this poem it works well.
Having read the poem, you probably won't be surprised to learn that Box is a musician. She plays the piano and sings. She writes music and lyrics, and records them. You can read more about Box at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/cecebox.
Congratulations to both winners! The poets published on this blog retain copyright to their own poems.
The next poetry challenge will be posted on March 1.
© 2012