I wrote the letter four times over, eachdraft calmer than the one that came before,until the anger, sanded to a speech,sounded like something you could not ignore.I did not send it. I have kept all four,folded in order, worst to nearly kind,a museum of the man I was beforeI taught my hands what patience meant to find.Some nights I take the first one out to read —the one with all the words I actually meant —and feel, for just a paragraph, freedof every quiet thing I since have bent.Then I refold it. Anger, given time,learns to prefer the softer, later rhyme.
The poet asked for: First thing I've posted. Four drafts of the letter, four drafts of this.
About the sonnetA fourteen-line poem, often built around a turn in thought partway through.
A sonnet has fourteen lines. Many are written in iambic pentameter and rhymed, though the rhyme patterns differ from one tradition to another. Many arrive at a shift, often called a volta, where the poem changes direction or sheds new light on what came before.
The shape Fourteen lines, usually in iambic pentameter, with a rhyme pattern that varies by tradition.
Listen for Fourteen lines, and the moment the poem turns to look somewhere new.
4 poems in this form →@soren
Writes when something's finally over, not before.
11 poems · 7 readings received · 16 written · 3 followers
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