The assignment was to change a famous work in form, style, or perspective. I normally hate creative writing assignments but this turned out to be more fun than I expected- I turned the classic William Carlos William poem into a Petrarchan Sonnet:
As I awoke I turned to see a sight-
you still asleep(and seemed so peaceful there).
Your lips, so soft, and curling amber hair-
eternal beauty framed within this light.
Entranced, I gazed upon your sun-filled face
until a new desire drew me away.
What could fulfill my hunger? I did pray,
How does one satisfy an empty space?
Inside the icebox I did find my prize-
A pair of juicy plums, so sweet and cold.
I beg you to forgive me for this crime,
as I have made you breakfast-less: deprived.
When I return, I hope you will not scold-
let me repay you with these words and rhymes.
This Is Just To Say
by William Carlos Williams
I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox
and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast
Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold
Thank you Kirsten for that birthday gift of a poem. And good to have you home for Thanksgiving and for the in-person celebration last night! That cake, with 52 candles, lit by a propane torch and cut by a lettuce knife, was so hazardous, so waxy, so close to alerting the fire department -- and yet so deliciously sweet!
ReplyDeleteGreat to read and re-read: your poem and Williams' and yours again! Keep this up, Kirsten! The parentheticals, dashs and lines of inquiry add much to this vignette, and, as Robert Frost emphasizes, people are at the heart of these kinds of poems (about plums, but really about us). I've also been drawn to the sonnet form off-and-on, whether Shakespearean, Petrarchan (recently) or those 'fat' and 'lean' variants of 15 or 13 lines, respectively. Today's effort, for instance, 'Cohabitants', is three-stanzas of lean sonnets, fun to craft: http://lostmenagerie.blogspot.cz/2014/12/cohabitants.html
ReplyDeleteEager to see more of what we 'love' to call 'English assignments'!