A Thread for Sonnets

The Watercooler
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I think we ought to open this up to sonnets,
which to English ears and mouths are sweet,
unless the rhyming makes you want to vomit.
(Rhyming often is a divisive feat.)

I’d love to hear some Buddhist sonneteers
spin their webs of words, their proliferous verbs,
their nouns and their adjectival creative cheers,
while all pretend at sagehood, writing blurbs.

Sonnets, though, are harder than haikus,
and some here barely grasp those rules of form.
A, B, A, B, C, D, C, D, E,
F, E, F, G, G – that is the norm.

A and A, they needn’t rhyme at all,
and that’s how you join a sonneteer cabal.

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Perhaps someone would like to volunteer
to open a thread of Buddhist poetry
so that way others may hear views so dear
it could be fun to vent if others will try.

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How to explain the matter of how to write
a sonnet? Tricky, tricky, indeed, it is.
How to explain the manner in which we might
approach it? Difficult it is, I say, this biz.

You have three quatrains – that is all you’ve got.
Tell your story in three, and then a treat
in iambic pentameter wrought.
(The volta is a striking momentous feat.)

Don’t be shy, give it an unpolished try.
A sonnet is a true human bleat.
Like goats, we make our sounds, our rounds, we sigh,
we ask our endless litany of “why?”

Don’t you feel clever, writing a meagre sonnet?
Bet you didn’t think I’d end with “grommet.”

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In the last sonnet, I broke a sacred rule,
by all accounts complete I am a fool,
but schemata for sonnets are a tool
for completion of a thesis cool.

In light of this, we can from schema stray
if insight gives us but a simple glimpse.
The rules of rhyme are but a license gave
that we might strive for brilliance – us, these wimps.

If we’ve courage and a certain background,
sonnets are but a mere formal frame.
If we wish to say something profound,
we’ve merely to cultivate a certain acclaim.

A Buddhist sonnet yet I have to see.
Fame in wordplay isn’t a Buddhist decree.

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A Buddhist Sonnet

The Buddha Dhamma, an exalted gift
To alleviate the hearts suffering
Through training we can heal the painful rift
Caused by delusions about everything

By meditation and some deep insight
Using samadhi and contemplation
Gradually developing the view that is right
Doing everything in moderation

Living simply and in seclusion
Restraining thoughts, feelings and distractions
To develop wisdom, end delusion
Cultivate virtue with no infractions

Our life on the gradual training we spend
In this way we walk The Path to the end

:pray:

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