Poetic Forms and Dance Steps: A Sonnet
This attempt of a Shakespearean sonnet was started in the Poetic Forms workshop at Girls Write Now, in which I was challenged to follow the rules. I was inspired by the freedom with which those rules were rejected by our fearless mentees.
Surely men made up the poetic forms
Sonnet, sestina, villanelle, cinquain
Like boys and drinking games in college dorms
How ’bout: Five tercets and then a quatrain
Repeat this word, third stanza, second line
How low can you go, can you go down low?
So I chafe and resist those rules assigned
Who counts the syllables? And also: no.
It’s not the words with which I so quarrel
But arbitrary, patriarchal rules
The art confounds me. Wherefore the laurels
Would women create such confining tools?
You and I, let’s create our new bounty
Let’s write lines as if no one is counting
Lawless. Unburdened. Free.