The prompt for today, Easter Sunday, was to write a sonnet about love. Sounds easy, right? Not after the prompt for yesterday took all the creative juices, but the show must go on, so we poets keep writing as much as we can. I got the lines, the syllables, but not the iambic pentameter or the rhyme. Still, I am sharing this sonnet about love inspired by Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now” quote.
When Warm Embrace Turns Chill: A Sonnet
“It’s love’s illusions I recall.” ( Joni Mitchell)
Of all memories we carry inside,
why do our hopes and anticipation
fade away like an elusive moonrise
obscured by a thunderhead cloud at night?
Why forget the times when the horizon
opened bright the path clear in front of us
beckoned birds to light and trill songs of joy
our words flowed; our embraces wrapped us home.
Instead, it’s disappointments we recall
when hope unpredictable like sudden
cold rain and blustery wind on spring days
turn skies dark and paths rise steep ahead.
Words don’t fit like a puzzle but drop like
a stone when your once warm embrace turns chill.
Jacquelyn Markham (4/9/2023)
Poet Voice 