For Morris Dean
Formality
Elizabethans and Romantics taught
Us that the sonnet needs a plot to tend,
A garden walled-off from the world, where thought
May blossom for a lady—or a friend.
They also showed, when gratitude was due,
How to immortalize and honor those
Deserving thanks: a benefactor who
Subscribed, or lender failing to foreclose.
But what of you, who granted an estate
To one who’d never tilled the soil before?
What does such openhanded kindness rate
From one now reveling in the out-of-door?
Restraint, it seems—since debt as great as mine
Demands the measure of a formal line.
| Copyright © 2023 by Eric Meub |
It is a distinct, very high honor for me that the absolute best sonnet you have written so far should be dedicated to me. Might that it be engraved on a stone in UNC-Chapel Hill’s Memorial Grove after my ashes have been scattered there. Thank you, Eric.
ReplyDeleteFor your huge output of fine poems, you would deserve a section of wall at the J. Paul Getty Museum of Art in Los Angeles, perhaps needing to ride in on the coat tails of some of Susan C. Price’s drawings and paintings because of the Getty’s being for the visual arts.
Well done, Eric! Quite a tribute.
ReplyDeleteTo really comprehend this work, I had to read it aloud. Then again. And again and again. As spoken art, this approaches Ozymandias in alliteration, and The Second Coming in scope and content. My God man, it is magnificent. What a fitting tribute. I read your email about my last submission, also a wonderful compliment. To even be a "tie" with an artist like you...I can't describe my elation. As with so much here, I simply cannot believe it. Dreams do come true. All the best my friend.
ReplyDeleteA masterful sonnet and stunning tribute!
ReplyDelete