Welcome back. I hope you all had a chance to read the preview over the weekend. All? Well, it seems I hover around a 40% open rate for my sonnet posts. If you’re one of those who open these emails, thank you, and this is for you. Thank you Titus Arrius for commenting, and yes, you nailed one of the two referenced songs. Not only that, you even picked the right version of the song I had in mind. That may be because of my previous post, Autumn Leaves, hinted at my biased influences or maybe there is some cosmic connection we share. The other song reference is less obvious, yet in plain sight.
Photo by Bernard Spragg, Christchurch, New Zealand
Precious Platinum Tea Rose bred by Patrick Dickson Northern Ireleand
As I mentioned Friday, this is a standard English Sonnet, three quatrains followed by a rhyming couplet with an ABAB CDCD EFEF GG rhyme scheme.
The Dawn Breaks Cold #198 A new world beckons from the dreams I saw. Fantastic fields of gold I'd never known Arising from the dawn of winter's thaw When all was set to live in joy alone. I walked this wonderland amidst the crash While fair winds soothed the pain I'd laid aside. My prison walls of velvet turned to ash Releasing heart of all my hopes denied. In darkness for a time I walked in fear Till long forgotten strains restored my soul. The melodies that once dried every tear Returned abilities to heart console. This heart afraid of breaking took its chance And winning loser once again may dance. Frank Garnick © Copyright The Archer's March 20 November 2022
Most of my poems take their title from the body, but this first quatrain follows from the title. The dawn is a new beginning, and with many beginnings things look brighter with time. Most of my sonnets are written in the early morning. It’s usually colder in the morning than later in the day, so too the darkness gives way to the luminescence of the full day to come. This sonnet is exploring these comparisons as they apply to life itself. We aim for betterment as we travel our paths, whether that be material, emotional or spiritual betterment. It’s a good thing to try to imagine the success we aim for. Those Fields of Gold that beckon from our imagination can become reality. Even the accomplishment of being happy, alone, in the cold darkness of winter, can become bountiful fields of barley with time. And effort.
Even in the aftermath of destruction, the world yet contains a wonderland of beauty. If we allow ourselves to partake of this wonder, even the pain sustained in loss can be wiped away. The soft, self made prison walls we often allow ourselves to inhabit, say from a broken heart, can be carried away by fair winds as ashes are from an inferno. Fire has a way of rejuvenating a landscape and so too, a broken heart is more capable of deep feeling than one unscathed. To look forward with hope releases us from the grip of the past.
It’s a rough road we tread, but remembrance of past warmth and goodness are restorative. Experience hath shewn us able to recover from pain, to our own heart’s consolation.
I’ll leave the couplet to your imagination for it is the second song reference I mentioned in the preview on Friday. Some say it is plain for all to see.
Thank you for reading and have a wonderful day.
Or buy me a coffee.