Sonnet Challenge – #1 (Finally)

Alright, alright… I’ve blathered on enough about how I find myself incapable of maintaining a challenge I’ve set for myself, and it’s time I finally just place my chips on the table and show my hand. Anyway, I’ve worked for awhile today revising this sonnet up for your viewing pleasure, and I hope you enjoy it.

Not only that, but I ran across a sonnet I wrote a few months ago that I genuinely still love after reading it a few times again. It was intended to be part of a series of sonnets dealing with a common theme. So I’m going to shift gears a little bit in the coming weeks and work to flesh out a collection of sonnets that work with the one I’ve mentioned.

I won’t be sharing all of those, but I will work to show a part of it when I can. For now, here’s the sonnet that the challenge helped to produce that I’ve put off too long on revising and sharing with you all.

Sincerely,
Stephen R.

Writing

The strings have fallen flat
while sitting quietly beside my bed,
dust falling between the slats
of my window to collect along its neck.

When I do pull it out, I pluck the strings
the way I remember.  Each finger placed
so finely as to make each note sing
out in pleasure as I play through a scale.

I grow faster with practice, notes bending
to the pull of my fingertips.  Humming along
I move through the familiar, winding
paths, lightly biting my tongue.

I play because I feel I must
or I’d only produce a film of dust.

– Stephen Recker

P.S. One of my favorite bands just released a new single the other day, Mumford & Sons.  I’m sure most of you will have already heard of them or know of the song already, but for those who haven’t I strongly suggest checking them out.

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The Next Writing Challenge?!?

Well, I’ve made it back from New York… tired and worn out, but I had a good time with family. I’ve spent the past week recuperating and considering just what the title says: I need a new writing challenge. But first, I want to share this picture from my flight:

I don’t care for flying overall, but I do love a view like that.

So for anyone who’s been following the blog or just checked out past posts, you may remember a segment I did simply entitled the Aphorism Challenge. For five weeks I wrote an aphorism every day and then selected the best of the bunch and put it up for all to see.

The main goal for that challenge was to get myself writing and, as of right now, I haven’t been pushing myself to write like I should. So to fix that I’ve decided to set myself up a brand-spanking-new challenge to force myself in front of my desk with pen and paper (or fingers and keyboard as the need arises). This time, however, I want to work in another form of poetry than the aphorism, which, though challenging in its own ways, was a simpler way of writing.

For now, I want to stick with a form I’m at least a little familiar with, so for my first new set of challenges I’ve decided on Sonnets. They typically come in two major forms, the petrarchan and Shakespearean. I’ll go into more detail next week with the first development of this Sonnet Challenge.

Anyone who knows me well will also know how averse I’ve been to writing in form poetry over the past few years. It’s a different mindset for writing, and thus I find it harder to do and only really possess a cursory knowledge of a few of the major forms out there. So I have an added request for anyone reading this post:

Is there a type of form poetry that you are particularly fond of? One that would make for a good challenge to practice writing with? If so, feel free to comment and share. I would love to hear more about different forms.

I will hopefully have some ok work-in-progress Sonnets to share in the coming weeks. Till then, I hope you all have had a fun and safe time since my last post.

Stephen R.

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