When I was just a little girl, I would lean my back against the trunk of the willow tree in my grandparent's backyard. Shaded by its branches, I would set pen to paper and write my childish poems. I felt protected by the tree that seemed, always, to be crying. In this sonnet I have intimately juxtaposed the life of that tree and the lives beneath that tree, with the emotions of generations to come in my family tree. And humbly, I rejoice that they have wept for me!
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The sonnet is my favorite form of poetry, so when my college professor challenged me to write a sonnet, I was ready!
I knew I specifically wanted to stay true the idea of sonnets of old, written mostly of love and philosophy. I wanted my sonnet to have iambic pentameter, and have four quatrains with an ending couplet, using the abab, cdcd, efef, gg rhyme scheme. I was asked to finish my poem in one week; it took two. This particular sonnet is included in a published work The International Library of Poetry's, Tracing the Infinite. My profile and poem are featured as the first work in the book.
I'm not sure why, but for too long a while, I had quit writing. Today while doing some much needed spring cleaning, I came across the book. With some emotion, a sigh, and a smile, I decided I would take the poem off the shelf and share it with you!
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Weeping Tree
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The sonnet is my favorite form of poetry, so when my college professor challenged me to write a sonnet, I was ready!
I knew I specifically wanted to stay true the idea of sonnets of old, written mostly of love and philosophy. I wanted my sonnet to have iambic pentameter, and have four quatrains with an ending couplet, using the abab, cdcd, efef, gg rhyme scheme. I was asked to finish my poem in one week; it took two. This particular sonnet is included in a published work The International Library of Poetry's, Tracing the Infinite. My profile and poem are featured as the first work in the book.
I'm not sure why, but for too long a while, I had quit writing. Today while doing some much needed spring cleaning, I came across the book. With some emotion, a sigh, and a smile, I decided I would take the poem off the shelf and share it with you!
*****
Weeping Tree
Your tears water the seeds beneath my bones
Traveling the Earth, joining ancestry
Binding the knowledge of yesterdays gone
Graciously promising infinity
Binding futures with your fountain of tears
Branching the heavens in search of our roots
Gracefully keeping in touch with the years
Winds whisper wishes of splintering truths
Traveling the Earth, joining ancestry
Binding the knowledge of yesterdays gone
Graciously promising infinity
Binding futures with your fountain of tears
Branching the heavens in search of our roots
Gracefully keeping in touch with the years
Winds whisper wishes of splintering truths
Locked away skeletons, hidden for shame
Silently pay homage to memories
Eroded by storms of blood and its stain
Smothering images of destiny
In awe of explanations there may be
Humbly I rejoice you have wept for me
Michelle E LaDuke
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© Michelle LaDuke 2015
© Michelle LaDuke 2015
