Sonnettics

Weep, weep not, thou knight of faith by torment
or despair. The sacrifice desired
at Moriah–by thy god required–
exhalts thee to a throne beyond lament.
Transcend the Law, and by obedient
action, leap the chasm where Hell is fired;
tread the highway, which by god inspired,
guides thee to thy heavenly endowment.
Now Hell hath opened wide its gaping door,
and doubt hath pierced both father and the son;
Moriah is a holy mount no more–
the ram upon its slopes is free to run.
Cries Abram, by his son’s blood now reviled,
“My god, my god, has let me kill my child.”

(This is an old sonnet I wrote back in my undergraduate years, maybe 1990?)

 Sweet Sirens sing to draw me from the sea
The sea, a path I’ve drawn through wind and waves
To take me to a place I long to be
And yet, I’m drawn by songs my spirit craves

If home is not where Siren’s songs are heard
Then why is home the place I long to be?
Will home surpass the notes of ev’ry word?
The spoken words that bind or set me free?

Alas, sweet Sirens sing beyond such words
Alas, I am compelled to heed the call
The call of more than songs of simple birds
Or rhythmic waves that rise and see me fall

I fall like others, where I make my choice
Of words or music, songs of notes or voice. 

And where mistakes repeat, repeat, repeat
Like legs that lift and fall, that lift and fall
In shoes that know the softness of the street
And yet, deny the rhythmic sole to call

The beat of life’s mistakes becomes a song
A little song that’s published in the night
And when the other runners sing along
You’ll hear the wrong of ev’rything that’s right

And so you turn to face the past that flees
And yet you face the back of what succumbs
To words that wear a sickly-sweet disease
Because they’ve learned that truth adheres and numbs

And where mistakes repeat before they end
They’ll learn the words I’ve offered to my friend.

The softness of her face becomes an Art
Portrayed in skin and shadows drawn by will
The will that shows the magic of her heart
That brings the joy of beauty she would fill

She fills her lines with curves that can emote
The thoughts that show her face beyond her eyes
And ev’ry word she speaks is to denote
Each story she would tell without surprise

Surprise appears regardless of her words
Like clouds appear within the bluest sky
Above the songs of flight of soaring birds
That reach for heavens where their songs can fly

I see the truth within her face’s song
The right of softness where her words belong.

The volta of ambition sings a song
A little song that dances in my mind
It can’t be right; it therefore must be wrong
So wrong, it simply must be left behind

And yet I can’t decide which note should end
Which foot that falls before its verse declines
Decline my verse and never be a friend
To anyone like me, whom verse defines

Then back to the beginning we must dance
Before the volta turns, its song to sing
Then back into the place we took our chance
Where neither one expected anything

Return my life; return my sullied cross
Return to what your spirit might emboss.

It rose above the Paris street below
A mockery of planetary pride
It watched the gay Parisians come and go
And felt what they would find beneath, inside

A crescent held in place by wood and steel
Aesthetically, it watched the world go round
While knowing everything our world would feel
Before they brought it humbly to the ground

They brought it down? For what? Indignance shrugged
Nobody knows; perhaps nobody cares
Like little people, brightly mocked or drugged
Observed the moonlit mill of one who dares

To watch the vastness of the simple sky
And simple people, sadly passing by.

I think you better go out with the boys
You stay inside too much, she tells her son
She knows she can’t express maternal joys
To George, although he is the only one

The only one she thinks of, in despair
Despair at what died deep inside her heart
Maternal joy she wishes she could share
With George her son; it tears her soul apart

She listens at his door and hopes he’ll find
The secret thing that died in her, not him
She kneels like one in prayer, a fragile mind
Rejecting thoughts that others might think grim

She wants him to be brisk and smart, alive
Outside where no dull silence will deprive.

It’s late, and yet she goes out for a walk
It’s late, and yet she walks out in the cold
The town’s asleep; there’s no one out to talk
About the way she walks; her mood is bold

She thinks about the students in her school
And then about the boy, become a man
She wants his mind to be a sharpened tool
It will be one, according to her plan

She plans to hone the talent she can see
To teach him of the life he needs to live
Her passion finds desire and needs to be
Within his arms to take the kiss he’ll give

Too late, the kisser leaves the lonely, kissed
The words of some great lesson had been missed.

A bitch, I say, will always be a bitch
She dresses like a slut, and slips around
I ask her why she’s playing out of school
She tries to slap me, but I hold her back
Then Dilsey tries to help that little slut
She calls her “damn old nigger” in return
I drive the slut to school, then go to work
The only Compson worth a damn at all
I try to speculate on cotton fields
But Jews up in New York have fixed the game
The money in my box is mine to count
Regardless of the niggers that I feed
No nigger, Jew, or bitch will keep me down
I’ll play enough to win the game life sets.