Love's Mourning for Midnight: Sonnets of Love

This book of poetry is about the complex feelings of love and life – the longing, the lusting, but also the disappointments and pain. The Sestinas, for example, explore desire, as well as a wish to ignore love, shut it out. Blank moods without love may mean no pain.

In this book, I have enjoyed writing poems in the Sestina format, as well as the Corona. However, I have composed 35 Sonnets with the standard 14 lines, classical rhyming, and in the iambic pentameter beat.

The Sestina, comprising 39 lines, has a complex ordering of 6 repeating words in each section. There are no rhyming patterns in this form and there are 5 Sestinas in this book. The great Petrarch or Petrarca (Italian) 14thC poet, utilized this form in some of his poetry. I find that a format or structure is not a deterrent to creativity, rather it adds an extra layer to it-even inspiring it, on occasion. The Sestinas allow longer storytelling than the Sonnet.

The Corona is a much longer Sonnet and comprises 7 standard individual Sonnets, with a classical beat and rhyming. First lines and last lines are repeated throughout. There are 4 in this book. Again, because of the longer length, a narrative may be built.

The themes of the Coronas - Sonnet 139, Dark Flames, poses scenarios that the greatest loves may be those that are never consummated, with references to Petrarca and his beloved Laura. Sonnet 140, Revealing Essence, is a tribute to all writers who seek to reveal truths. Sonnet 141 wanders into the troubled territory of losing autonomy in a relationship, while still recalling the sweet beginning. Sonnet 142, a woman grows tired of waiting for communication.