Farmer's Market Sonnets: Autumn 2012 (Volume 1)

A collection of sonnets written in the fall of 2012 for shoppers at the Berkeley and Oakland farmers' markets. Each sonnet was written on the spot for customers as they shopped at the farmers' markets, based on a custom theme of their choosing. Next to each sonnet is a short story of its genesis and the theme that brought it into being. Sample sonnets: Autumn's Joy The marketplace is full of signs of fall: Fresh squash and pumpkins fill the stalls beside The warm guitarist's chords, as autumn's chill Steals between our threads, breaking inside To sit and warm itself by the huge hearth Within. Is this the fire that burns as well In the sun's winter, hidden from the earth But dwelling in the dark frost on the sill Before the morning comes? The ochre sky Moves like a curtain, cloudy, cool and gray And lends this mild shade to the passerby While pumpkins celebrate a dwindled ray. So autumn comes in on the edge of joy And leaves us wanting, like a lover coy. Beyond the Frame The art within the frame is seen by all And yet, behind the piece there lives a thought Plucked from a pool, where ends a gilded hall From whence all art is sprung, all that's taught Is born to being, pure and anonymous. The art that's seen is always reaching out For similar tones, not synonymous, Only the colored echo of a doubt That takes a soul to hear. The art itself Is but a frame that keeps a river in. It is one way we glimpse beyond the wealth And understand the richness kept within. So let us frame the captured art we may And see the frame that carries us away.