Sonnet 19
- I often wake subdued from some dream's dew,
- Unphased by what the morning wakeup sets
- In motion a schedule of things to do
- That do little to best my nights' vignettes.
- And it's mournful how the moisture meddles
- the moods of men crowding aboard the train,
- While my misty mind serenely settles
- Which thought of you my heart will entertain.
- Then the march to meet an eight hour role,
- To add to rumbles of things unhumble,
- Yet I waltz toward a delight so sweet,
- A smile that even my dreams can't compete.
- Despite the fog and what the forecasts say,
- With you I always have a sunny day.
Notes
This was written in a quick spurt during yet another trip to Starbucks while enjoying a cappuccino earlier this week. I was intending to reread portions of the Michael Ryan book I mentioned a few months back, but ended up inspired and wordsmithy with this sonnet. I like this piece a lot, and though I wanted to go through it finely to fix stress and meter errors, I held back because it's an honest portrayal of whatever I was thinking at that point in time in whatever groove I was in. As far as what this sonnet is about, the whole San Francisco BART commute and work life drains your soul and having little inspiration abound sucks more out, until you're lucky enough to have something pleasant arching up to invite you every morning.
There's some wordplay and punning, especially in the first quatrain, though I drop off it later. I guess you can correlate it with my progression into reality every morning as my mind becomes more lucid, or I'm just making things up to justify whatever writing talent I possess. I started this sonnet with the concluding couplet, which helped me frame the rest of the work (which morphed into something significantly different than when I started the piece).
— Huy on