Bastard Child

 

I’ve written a sonnet once or twice before, though

not one without strict meter and format that

speaks more like a conversation. Is it prose?

Or is it poetry? This bastard child without rhyme!

It’s funny where the words go when we let them

run free; thoughts all a-jumble on a page. It kind of

sets a stage. It frees the mind from rhyme, although

mine tends to fall back into old patterns, despite

my best efforts not to. Old habits die hard. Yet 

we all know that poetry is in the eyes of the beholder. 

Not the writer who births the words, ever trying to express

something, always feeling she’s made a mess of  things.

If one credits where credit is due, so too should go ‘blame’

After all, they’re pretty much the same, aren’t they?

 

© Ginny Brannan 2024

 

NaPoWriMo Day 27 Prompt: Today we’d like to challenge you to write an “American sonnet.” What’s that? Well, it’s like a regular sonnet but . . . fewer rules? Like a traditional Spencerian or Shakespearean sonnet, an American sonnet is shortish (generally 14 lines, but not necessarily!), discursive, and tends to end with a bang, but there’s no need to have a rhyme scheme or even a specific meter.