Form Challenges #24
CURTAL SONNET
CURTAL SONNET

Some would argue as to whether it is a true sonnet, but I consider it to be just as valid as any other sonnet form. The Curtal is a curtailed or contracted sonnet, referring specifically to a sonnet comprising of a sestet with a rhyme scheme of
a. b. c. a. b. c. and a quintet rhyming, d. c. b. d. c.. or.. d. b. c. d. c. with the last line preferably a spondee, but at least a tail shorter then the previous lines.

The form was devised by Gerard Manley who devised a metrical system known as Sprung rhythm; that has 1-to-4-syllable feet, each starting with a stressed syllable (sometimes a foot by itself), where the spondee replaces the iamb as the dominant measure, and rests and multiple non-stressed syllables discounted in scansion. -

Peace

WHEN will you ever, Peace, wild wooddove, shy wings shut,
Your round me roaming end, and under be my boughs?
When, when, Peace, will you, Peace? I'll not play hypocrite
To own my heart: I yield you do come sometimes; but
That piecemeal peace is poor peace. What pure peace allows
Alarms of wars, the daunting wars, the death of it?

O surely, reaving Peace, my Lord should leave in lieu
Some good! And so he does leave Patience exquisite,
That plumes to Peace thereafter. And when Peace here does house
He comes with work to do, he does not come to coo,
He comes to brood and sit.

Gerard Manley Hopkins

Curtal Sonnet Posts
Contents

Bruce Henderson

Cultivated Spring
There's one in every crowd

Dera Cymreiges

Spring - In Curtal(ese)

Kathy Anderson

The Day I Wore All Black
The Fabric of My Heart
Tulips, So pink

Lorraine Dafney

Bus Stop
Candlelight
Hummingbird
Old Man Old Woman

Teagan De Danaan

Change of Reason.
Despair
Somewhere in time
Somewhere in time II
Question of Love
Visit with a thought

Bruce Henderson

Cultivated Spring

An abyss glows from the wasted fallout.
Come exorcise the phantoms in disguise
that charmed the inner child into the night.
It's time to cast away the ghosts. Look out
the frost is lifting from those wintry eyes,
and worlds will explode, from their sprouting sight.

The Earth absolves her cares of old with each
burgeoning Spring. Below flowering skies
she exhales vistas in an ancient rite
to fatten beauty. You are Earth, go preach
God's light.

There's one in every crowd

With measured care, meticulous
hands placate the fruits of combat
on the ashen streets of Riyadh.
Though pranks that are ridiculous
always sprout from a silly brat
when one is hard upon the job.

With smiles the tension defuses.
But, there's one in every crowd that
likes to play jokes that just seem odd.
Because life's a blast in Bruce's
bomb squad.

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Dera Cymreiges

Spring - In Curtal(ese)

For Gerard Manley - Poet (1844 - 1889)

Praise for this sense of what is to come
this feeling that somebody's out there
scattering fresh blooms to the midnight breeze
permeating the darkness with scent - it's won
my praise each year - made me believe and dare
to anticipate times when the heart is at ease.

Each time is like the first - it's a genius I want to hold,
make a firm fist of my hand - does appease
that obsession to own the magnolia's flare
and the lilac's scent, when spring grows old,
to summer cedes.

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Kathy Anderson

The Day I Wore All Black

Was the last time I thought of your blue eyes
The eyes I adored from afar so long
So long did my heart linger there for you

For you were the only maestro I've prized
A prize of glimmer soul, devised song
To sing ways to turn midnights moon, my cue

You cue my minds connections to eros
The eros no one else knows how to shew,
Make or slake, nor awake from sleep; prolong

Me there till mornings song invites repose
With you beneath bowered trees, to renew.

 -----

The Fabric of My Heart

Scrim is the fabric of an angels heart
And the way you feel when love is nearby
The beaches of your souls first happy dreams.
Satin on the velvet side of nights part
In the scheme of a butterflies life; sighs
On her wings wisp through trees above soft streams.

Chi chi as a peacock in Central Park,
Showing without knowing to passers by,
Such feathers fine in light of sols sunbeams.
Thus, my heart, you've seen briefly midnights dark
Hem, before dawns gentle rise into sheen.

 -----

Tulips, So Pink

Give not pale green eyes to sure beset me
With jealous lies and snapdragon flowers.
Let no varigated petals fate sight
In dangerous dazzle nor false beauty.
For white beds of tulips return power
Of love to me in the form of that knight;
The knight that has gone away for loves lack,
Perhaps for reasons of others, not blight.
Maroon black blossoms enchantedly cower
Behind the tamarac's arms, forever slack,
Embracing in a dream, the earth, as thee.

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Lorraine Dafney

Bus Stop

They wait like soldiers in the pouring rain
Smoking cigarettes that leave hazy strands
Not a word is spoken silence prevails
Boarding the bus with their personal pain
Whatever the job there's always demands
Each morning weary souls share no details
This Shakespearean sonnet rides on wheels

It carries dreams left floating at bus stands
Today one person succeeds and one fails
No way of knowing how life cuts some deals
Just the bus driver he understands

-----

Candlelight

I see our youth in the candlelight
Memories flash in each flicker waving
Your eyes blink as quick as it all happened
Carefree days that ended beneath moonlight
As we grow older I feel this craving
To reminisce pause reflect comprehend

Without a wind to disturb the stillness
I will scold it for not quite behaving
As I try to embrace yesterday's light
When two hearts met and found their happiness
Forever now an engraving

-----

Hummingbird

I hear the wings of a hummingbird
Its message rhythm its own beat
I watch as one addresses a flower
Graceful movements without a word
A dance before a red flower sweet
In the shadows of sunsets hour

These images define a perfect pair
A small wonder ( how can one compete?)
On their own mission they will not cower
When I am old with not much time to spare
I'll rejoice remembering their feat.

-----

Old Man Old Woman

Rain graces the arid soil and quenches
The life beneath drinks once more and survives
Like lovers reaching for each others hands
Content they sit upon old park benches
Age has taught them to accept what arrives
Memories have drifted with wind swept sands

Each morning they awake with joyful hearts
Both take another sip from life and thrive
Enjoying their days now free of demands
Two elderly people never apart
Now face changes each one hopes withstands.

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Teagan De Danaan

Change of Reason

Never again will I write of love
No flights of fantasy or special moments
Or lovers whispers with oil slicked tongues
No flowery images and such to speak of
No more of passion and all its torments
And finally, chasing setting suns is wrong.

Wind and river whisper with their voice
Their own assurances to my covenant
My sense of rightness will make me strong
With philosophy and reason I have a choice
Right here.

-----

Despair

It is full moon, oft hid by black clouds
Tonight, too often, matching my thoughts
Each progress into darkness leads me on.
The night grows cold, covered by shrouds
Rubber straps around, make veins taught
Hopefully I pray that I'll soon be gone.

Warm water flows into the bowl
Tapping the swelling vein feeling naught
With an upward cut the razors drawn.
Red life gushes from a widening hole
Soon gone.

-----

Somewhere in time

Once again somewhere in time we shall meet
We will break bread, and from the wineglass sup
And sing our songs and speak our love in rhyme.
We will move in time and feet will tap the beat
And life's wine shared, more tasty with each cup
Knowing we will meet again somewhere in time.

Each blessed meeting this life the days are few
Sharing wine and bread, we climb further up
Confident of a love that is more than certainty
And now each life wait for our rendezvous
Through eternity

-----

Somewhere in time II

Somewhere in the mists of time we danced
As a piper played, we held each other tight.
Our dance of love a sign of all that's good
And moved and danced then we romanced
Searching each others eyes, far into the night
Our music lingered and changed with the mood.

There is no music that surpasses that of amore,
Nor any dance where two hearts beat as one,
Maturing with time creating a love so right
Living and loving until this life on Earth is done,
Meeting all that fate has in store.

-----

Question of Love

Is love made of rock, of hard granite stone
Heavy and solid, and sometimes a bore?
That rock shatters and wears away to sand
Resolve no tougher than frail flesh and bone.
Or a hardened shaft that strengthens our core
And a grip of steel from a powerful hand?

Is love just an illusion of hormones and wishes
Where the instinct to breed becomes only a chore
Or do we receive far more than was planned
A feast, a smorgasbord full of exotic dishes
So grand.

-----

Visit with a thought

I shall visit with my thoughts tonight,
For they have made me curious
And I find no comfort in their leaving.
Some consider life as an actor might
A shallow life and highly spurious
And their loss won’t find me grieving.

But consider one thought worth all
So much worthy of conceiving
That will make the shallow furious
And the sage nods in his great hall
Believing.

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