21 February 2019
We looked at sonnets this week. It's such a marvellous form for workshopping. Small, accessible, and the good ones are chock full of poetic devices. In this workshop we compared a Shakespeare sonnet with a contemporary sonnet. In the space between two small poems we were able to talk, in one way or another, about imagery, word choice, structure, image building, line breaks, all kinds of rhyme, musicality and rhythm, the volta, tone, transformation, resolution and unity. There follows a sonnet from Jan, written at the workshop;
Winter Garden
By Jan O’brien
All the ground covered in snow
not a piece of grass to be seen.
The sun bouncing off a pool
of water on the greenhouse roof.
Blackbirds looking for food.
Frozen water in the birdbath.
A robin hops onto the fence
then onto the table looking for food.
I put out some food, then sit
and watch them all fly down.
Thrushes, starlings, sparrows,
even a couple of cheeky pigeons
flying in to see if they can get food.
It won't be long for the snow to melt.
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