Mean Stream excerpt

I have been working, um, diligently, on my poetry project. Following is an excerpt from Second Marriage, one of the poems in the third cycle. The rest of the poem is not yet complete. This sonnet, which is part of the longer poem, is a first in constructing a traditional sonnet for me.

This was a real challenge. The poem had to integrate with the narrative of the longer poem and follow the traditional rhyme and stanza construction.

I chose to do this as part of the longer poem because I wanted to imply a couple of things. The very formal quality of the sonnet brings to mind traditional concepts of love. The poem is about a woman marrying for the wrong reasons. I am hoping to undermine the concept of this poem with the revelations in the remainder of the poem.

Interlude:

Miller’s is packed this warm October night
But Cathy hasn’t seen anybody interesting so far
Then a short, wiry man walks into the bar
Though the room is dim, it seems as if a light
Has pierced the miasma to focus her sight
A moment she knows that nothing will mar
Even the strained voice of some wannabe rock star
Won’t tarnish the memory of love’s first sight

Tommy and Cathy spend November immersed
In the lucent waters of faultless passion
To emerge in December, banked fires, quenched thirst
Limp, ecstatic in their mutual obsession

Two notes sound a partial chord, begin a score
A synchronized harmony of rapport