~by Gregg Rowe~
(To my mother,
thank you for letting me see your smile again)
Here is the full Sonnet Sequence as a whole:
I
Today I live, tomorrow I will die,
Even a monkey needs to feel his place --
I ask what's wrong with our domestic race?
My wonderment is how I have survived!
My life has not been void of tears I cry --
As Aphrodite swam in night time grace,
And Paris joined with golden apple face --
My fingers slowly fondle inner thighs.
Quebec winter
snowbird casts a shadowed blanket
across my tombstone
I've witnessed gun-less war -- in this my era,
So visual silence is my need right now --
For years now -- sleep is what I dream and pray,
As I escape, swim the River Kara:
My ribbon red you'll tie in a tree bough --
Existence mine proclaimed this very day.
II
Existence mine proclaimed this very day
Past life, I pondered -- ask existing gods --
Your demonic hot pain through jolted rods
Was payment for my journey -- for my stay?
I sit -- not blinded -- accepting this way
In Youth, I felt like Christ -- receive his flogs
My eyes blanketed by grey sheets of fog
My love for Father -- could not keep at bay
spring river banks
protect Easter lilies
my pregnant mother
When reliving abuse days -- blow by blow
Still questions linger on my kinship seed
So here's the tale, a soul raked over coals
Through breaks in time, my forgiveness does grow
I crave solitaire -- peace is what I need
To rid these demons, exorcize my soul.
III
To rid these demons, exorcize my soul--
As music comforts blackness to my nights;
I search for love -- my Father's is not right
It's layman's payment for His Devil's dole:
Biblical verse was writ on Sacred scrolls;
On kin, a sin -- to perform sodomite.
Today, I'm forced to carry this birth-rite--
Abyss swallows me down her deep dark hole.
January
a pile of fresh black soil
father lies asleep
The pain I've lived, is worse than passing stones --
Or going and having a spinal tap.
These tests performed keeps me alive and well,
An illness begins to attack my bones --
It's a wonder I have yet to snap --
My life on earth has been a living hell.
IV
My life on earth has been a living hell,
Well mother’s passion love has sung six strings.
Musical voice -- a youthful angel sings --
My life commenced – fusion of their blood cells.
We’re prisoners shut in His House to dwell:
I seek to escape on guardian Holy wing,
Bow on my knees ask guidance from my King --
In January -- said final farewell.
silvery midnight moon
a black cat stalks the asphalt
we cross in mourning colors
Tragic angelic notes that I do hold --
I hear her music notes inside my head:
That speak of beats and rapes, not prideful dreams --
Inside my heart, they have their weight in gold.
Hers and my life’s lessons that we have bled --
In life later her blinded eyes could see.
V
In life later her blinded eyes could see:
I complete life’s cycle from boy to man.
Meet M. Archangel who’s taken His stand --
Through Him a message: G-d’s gift meant for me;
To test my life – my sexuality --
Seals my circle -- I wear this golden band.
Society armies define my brand --
I sift His sands -- discover I am free!
a new year’s eve
a rape seed fertilizes
we drown in champagne tears
Onion tears cry I -- to gods in the sky
Why was I chosen -- live this wretched life?
Three tests survived I, I’m ready to go.
Abuse, rape, HIV – I’ve had my cry
Prevents me searching, wed a perfect wife
My dream now is to find the perfect beau
VI
My dream now is to find the perfect beau --
Where dancing joins us under summer’s moon,
And nights are spent where we design love’s spoons --
A quilt my mother she will have to sew.
Before Edgar Allan sends his black crow!
We join an Irish/Scottish balled tune --
Unite a family, that has been strewn,
And brother’s bloodlines continue our flow --
silver moon sets
upon the black lagoon
lemon sunlight kisses
So let us join to sing a dance and jig:
Where son and mother will join hearts as one --
Then we can live life – and exhale our last breath;
A white dove holds our full genetic twig --
A father sick, a forgot faggot son:
I have no choice, I have to accept death
VII
I have no choice -- I have to accept death:
My love I've spoken in various forms;
No matter life's upheaval blackened storms --
And with my final and this lasting breath:
I slash with sword the grey spirit of Seth --
Her hazel eyes showed her son was not norm;
Because I had felt my mothers' womb's warmth:
Before I'm thrown into her winter's storm.
the Nile waters grow
fertilized land sows the seeds
I kneel before my gods
Salt blue waters I have cried day to day --
I've danced my notes and slept with male dreams,
Now as you raise me up to parting skies --
My love for Christ – I eat, drink, knell and pray:
Remember while I shouted and had screamed --
Today I live, tomorrow I will die!
Author notes
I feel this is one of my best poems that I have written after tackling the iambic movement of the sonnet and placing a haiku between the sestet and octave to bring the reader further into the indepthness of the poem and subject matter itself.
An Italian Sonnet form with a haiku juxtaposed between the octave and the sestet.
A Crown Sonnaiku is the same as a Crown Sonnet where the last line of the first stanza starts the first line of the second stanza, the last line of the second stanza starts the first line of the third stanza and the poet continues until all stanzas are cnmpleted; to Crown the sonnet the last line of the last stanza of the sonnets must be the same as the first line of the first stanza that opened the sonnet.
I have not mispelled kneel in Line 12 in Sonnet Sequence Number 7: I meant to write knell and below is my argument for the usage of this word in the poem:
knell :
noun : the sound of a bell rung slowly to announce a death or a funeral or the end of something
verb : ring, as of bells announcing death
verb : make (bells) ring, often for the purposes of musical edification
and where the word appears in the poem:
My love for Christ – I eat, drink, knell and pray :
This whole line is a religious ceremony in the Catholic faith
I eat the body of Christ
I drink the blood of Christ
in celebration of Easter and resurrection and rebirth:
It is true, in our reality, without suspending the disbelief, people do not ring neither do we eat nor drink Christ in reality, metaphorically we use symbols to convey this message. Metaphorically, people can knell or a ringing inside their soul at a closeness to death and then a rebirth. While grammatically kneel would be the correct usage, the word I chose has a double innuendo, the kneeling results as an action of the metaphorical knelling of musical bells at a death because of the sequent lines thereafter in the sonnet. The knell is juxtaposed beside pray and is not separated with commas like eat and drink are – musical denotations of a celebration which follows into the last two lines of the sonnet. The kneel metaphor has already appeared in the haiku above it, so I took the meaning unto the next level in the closing of the sequence.
My love for Christ – I eat, drink, knell and pray:
Remember while I shouted and had screamed --
Today I live, tomorrow I will die!
I feel that if was to use the collegiate word kneel , I would be losing some force in the line as kneel denotes a surrender, whereas I am not surrendering the voice here, I am celebrating a life: The line could easily have been written:
My love for Christ – I eat, drink, ring bells, pray.
The image of one kneeling at a funeral before a coffin while bells peel in the background, for me personally is a weaker line than someone’s soul knelling bells just before they die and see the white light, so to say. The poem sequence opens on the mythology and visions of Zeus and Chaos and closes on the mythology and visions of Christianity, but the 14th line of the 7th Sequence connects back to the first line of the First Sequence.
Because of my health status for twenty years, living with a chronic illness; having open heart surgery in May 2004; and living with tentalitis (constant ringing of the ears 24/7) I have experienced knell in my life. The closest I have come to face death was the evening of my operation with a chronic medical condition.
What is anthimeria?
Anthimeria is the use of a member of one word class as if it were a member of another, thus altering its meaning.
Example (English)
In the following example, unhair is an example of anthimeria. Although hair is normally used as a noun , in this instance it takes an -un prefix and is used as a verb :
“I’ll unhair thy head.”
(Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra, II, v, 64, cited by Corbett 1971 484 )
www.sil.org/linguistics/GlossaryOfLinguisticTerms/WhatIsAnthimeria.htm
www.sil.org/linguistics/GlossaryOfLinguisticTerms/contents.htm
Gregorian Sonnaiku
(How To Write This New Form—Learning Column)
by lordoftherings
allpoetry.com/Column/1043872
The following link leads you to other samples of this form as practiced by other members of AllPoetry.com who have shown an interest in learning this form--
allpoetry.com/poem/1045884
Written February 12th, 2005
In a list
- Gregg's Golden Cups • next in list
- Gregg's Bronze Cups • next in list
- The Honorables • next in list
- Gregorian Sonnaiku • next in list
A contest entry
- Persons With Disabilities by CountryCousin.
300 points, ended April 4, 2006, 2 entries
Bronze trophy winner
• next poem in this contest, remove from contest - Best Poet On AP:Season:2:Round:1 by wakingdevil.
600 points, ended November 25, 2006, 38 entries
• next poem in this contest, remove from contest - Optionz. by sparkling-assassin.
340 points, ended December 20, 2006, 23 entries
• next poem in this contest, remove from contest - SHOW ME YOUR FORM by Swan song.
600 points, ended July 29, 2007, 18 entries
Honorable mention
• next poem in this contest, remove from contest - Originality With Meaning by The Slant.
525 points, ended February 29, 2008, 26 entries
• next poem in this contest, remove from contest - Make this THE largest Contest EVER on AP [enter, enter, enter!] by Symphony.
18000 points, ended April 28, 1014 entries
• next poem in this contest, remove from contest
What did you think
Comments
1 - 41 of 41
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Ahhh ... another long write. I seem to have come across an epic run of them in the contest [get it? haha not funny, i know, i know]
I liked the dedication at the start of this - the "for letting me see you smile again" - very moving.
Onto the poem itself, I know very little about form poetry, and therefore am not in a position to critique it without having done the research -
but i can appreciate that this would have taken a great deal and amount of time, dedication and consistency to write, so I can appreciate that much
Thank you for entering
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i love the haikus in the middle. what a sophisticated poem. even though it is written in such an old fashioned style, it still read modernly. great poem. emotional read. it would be extremely difficult to write all of that in that form. props. some of the phrasing is awkward, but in general i am impressed.
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This is a masterpeice. Very wonderful form the content is a touch one but you penned this very well and I thank you for entering my contest
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Much effort has gone into creating and then writing this form of poetry - quite a combination of two very different forms - well thought out and written in these lines - think this could have become an epic as you wrote quite a bit here.
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seriously LONG! -
This was a really complex form and as far as I can see you got it down perfectly.The poem itself was excellent!Thanks for entering and best of luck
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Excellent
Beautifully written in the old way for sonnets to be written in. You have really done well. -
A entertaining piece.
This is not only entertaining but it is educational as well. In the meantime you have written a truly beautiful piece. I think that you have explained this very well. Thank you for entering my contest. -
Gregg, this is a beautiful poem. It has a sad but has deep, searching, questioning quality about it that is haunting. The form is wonderful as is the creativity you've used in language. I admire those who weigh words individually rather than chosing a few that sound good and thinking of them no deeper than that. A great write. Best wishes and
s... ~genielassie~
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Very long and very interesting. You've really outdone yourself with this poem. I must say though, the length did almost screw me over. @_@ Thanks for entering my contest, and good luck!
Best of wishes to you!
~Saknika
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The very words you have weaved on this page speaks of your talent. This piece is filled with so much emotion its like riding the waves...lovely write..enjoyed the read. Good luck in the contest..take care~
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This is as amazing now as it was the when I read it earlier in the year. You are so gifted Gregg and I truly love your work and your heart. Blessings and peace. I hope all is well with your soul these days. - joanne
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Wow, this is a long one Gregg LOL. Very well written though, as ususal and it quite captivated me. I really love the journey it took me through, It rolled like a movie, emotions steaming out. I'm sure your mother really loves this. It is outstanding hun! Blessings, Gypsy
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well pfffioowee
that is pretty long... I'm not really somebody who likes to read longer poems, but I forced myself to get through it, and you know what? I'm actually glad I read the whole thing, cause it's really a wonderful piece of art you have here...
Very well done
I wish you the best of luck in this contest!
Leander -
Wow, this is just amazing. It had me tearing up in the end. Your ending was just a WOW type of ending. Just pieced the poem up, and I really, my favorite parts were sometimes the haikus that were in there. They were so beautiful, and really added to the beauty of your lines. You are so talented, and just an amazing poet. Good luck in the contest, I wish you the best.
Leah -
after reading your author comments, i appreciated the poem even more. you must be a wonderful person to know, i think your mother is very blessed to have you for her son. love, rebeka
Edited on Jun 14, 10:11 because ''. -
whoo...that was long...but totally worth it...it was interesting...but then in the middle i got a lil disinterested...and then you caught my attention again and i remained enraptured throughout the rest of the piece ^^ lol...if this makes you feel any better, i didn't really even notice the "knell" part...^_^;;;; i think i just registered it as kneel...but anyway, this piece was fabulous and (i'm not exactly sure but i think you're a christian) you have great courage to use God and Christ in this piece ^^ i applaud you!!! good luck in the contest!!!!
sincerely, danbee -
Thanks so much for entering, I really like this form as a mix of various others. The poem itself was brilliant. I too love the way the reader can emphasise with this. Thanks again for entering. xxxxx
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very awesome poem..i really liked it alot...you are very talented...nice job and good luck in my contest
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SAM: You have no idea how touched I am that you would award Gold to the style of poetry that I created for this website. That alone means a lot to a writer and I am honoured to accept these tributes from you.
Happy Poet's Month
Gregg ♥
Edited on Apr 09, 12:54 because ''. -
You have no idea how hard it is not to give you first in every single contest I host! Lol.
Trying to be fair... trying to be fair...
~Samantha~
-Though Lord knows you deserve it
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Thank you Mary, I will forever cherish this gold one because it is written for a very special lady in my life. Gregg
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Congratulations on a most deserved gold win!
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This made me cry. It's why I saved it for last - I knew it would be the best
The piece was really nothing short of amazing, and not only because of it's creator's talent and genius. It had something for everyone, and most of all, the reader can tell how personal this is to you. I firmly believe that author sympathy is one of the greatest factors of poetry. Not feeling sorry for them, but understanding where they come from, and you achieve this completely through this piece. /I know how seriously you take your poetry, and believe me when I say that years from now, people will be adding Gregg Rowe to their lists of astounding poets. They already are here on AllPoetry. The best to you, and thank you so much for entering
~Smidge~ 
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Ruth: Oh my muse will definitely return to me when she feels like it. I think that after penning this one in four days straight and hardly any sleep and then doing the Sonnet for the Wyles Family emotions exhausted me because even if it doesn't look difficult, these are difficult to pen, remembering the iambic meter, rhyme and then putting a haiku in the middle is the double challenge. It's why after penning these writes my muse claims PMS (Post Memory Security) where she locks my brain up and gives me writer's block for a few days.
When she is back I will be back with a vengeance, and hopeful with another gem! PS: I love you poem on "Of Wanton Muse", it gives me an uplife, may I copy it and post it on my wall by my computer for nspiration? Gregg
Edited on Feb 24, 12:49 because ''. -
Greg...thanks so much for sharing this piece of your soul with me. I applaud your honesty and spirt even above your talent (which I hold high). You have seen your share of the darkside of life and share your experience with your readers so that they may learn the easier way. Applauds to you!!
I hope you understand why I closed my contest to prewrites, it seems as though that were the only thing I was getting. I'm sorry to have lost this gem from my contest because of that for it indeed moves me.
Here's hoping your dear muse returns and lends his grace to your pen again so you can enter. Best regards
Ruth
Of Wanton Muse
~Ruth Kephart~
With muted words of long ago
Speaks muse to me in loving flow
And brings to life lost inspiration
From depths beyond my own creation
Through cries of feathered flying hawk
Of freedoms quest, I hear him talk
And feel his breath, hot on the breeze
It brings me trembling, to my knees
I answer, lost beyond all doubt
As words on paper tumble out
And clasp my pen of gilded gold
In search of something real to hold
He speaks, I answer, warm reply
Though teardrops trickle from my eye
My wound not cured by stitch nor salve
One always wants what they can't have
And so once more I bid goodnight
To gentle muse and dim the light
Lay down my pen, pull up the sheet
And pray for wind to cool the heat
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a soul raked over coals... omg that's so awesome.. i need to steal it.. but i won't...
love the background too... is it from ap or your own?
this is a l o n g poem but very good - michele -
Amazing imagery, I loved this write Good write- keep writing because this was beautiful, passionate and rhymed well
All the best,
Pozo
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This is extremely impressive. I'm amazed at your clarity of thought and depth of feelings - both expressed very visually. But I can't say anything about the form unless I've studied a bit about it (which I'm going to do now). SO I may just come back to this comment after a while and want to edit it.
Cheers,
Mandy -
beautiful write and way cool style...poetry only has form from those who paved the way..but to go outside the lines and bring forth something new is sweet within itself...brilliant piece
Peace Muddy -
hey- very impressive! i always knew you were a good writer, and this piece just affirms that. this was just... incredible. beautiful and expressive and powerful and inspiring and wow! so many words i could use to describe this. awesome awesome job.
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Wow. That was beautiful. It was all very clearly expressed, yet still made me think about it. Great job on this one and keep writing.
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UNBELIEVABLE
This is AMAZING. I love sonnets too bad I can not write them. You have created a new way of putting things in retrospect. I love this poem. You are brilliant with words and style. To master this type of writing takes a lot. I enjoyed this. Keep up the great writing. This kept my so interested and I felt every word as though it was telling a story. I pictured so much with this. This is by far the BEST I have seen in a long time. This is not disappointing at all. You are truely a talented writer keep up the great writes. I will be looking for more from you to read. Thank you again for sharing -
A Magnificient Write!
This has turned out to be an amazing piece of writing Greg, I waited until it was finished before coming to read the rest of what you had written. I have not been disappointed! here you lay your very soul bare, your anguish and pain so very prominent, it stands out almost 3D!
You have created a masterpiece with this form! it's new, exciting and very different, a challenge to be sure, yet once mastered, it's absolutely wonderful!
I applaud you from the depth of my soul.
~Katie~
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the depth of ur feelings is beautiful
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Interesting write. The words and the style for description are unique in their own way. :-) Good job
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simply beautiful
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Brilliant
Brilliantly written! Your words drew me in and I did not want to experience the sadness but I could not stop reading every word. The story is vivid and haunting and the style so creative. God bless you! -
Interesting style, a sonnet and a haiku. I'll have to try it out as I love sonnets. I loved this poem too! The two forms make for an interesting mix between imagery and emotion, plus, as a form freak myself, I can certainly appreciate how hard one must work to make poems (especially sonnets, no matter what the rhyme scheme) this good!
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Scarey
I must learn this style you have created. Brilliant my dear friend xoxox -
System Message:
4 days ago
[delete ] [history] [reply] lordoftherings (im) applauded your comment on Sonnet Sequence 4: What I Dream (Italian Gregorian Sonnaiku) by lordoftherings
"Just keep going Gregg while your muse is flowing, then let hugh go over them for you.
They are so beautiful they have to be perfect as you have created this style.
I am so happy your Mother has come to you and now supports you~Love~Joan ♥
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