Summer Poetry Discussion, The NBA and two Sonnets

I have never really considered myself to be much of a poet (though I did like the poem I published a few posts ago: L’expulsion du Norman des Farm Lands de Georgia). [As an added side note, I have noticed I’ve begun to use parenthesis and what not in my recent blog posts… this is something I am trying to get rid of in my creative writing, because classmates noticed I did it excessively in one of my workshop stories during Fall ’07 {in fact, I even had a double aside, as I am doing right now}]. However, I would like to become more of a poet, and have thought about taking the Intro to Poetry Writing class at Georgia State in the Spring (my final semester) if I can. I recently realized, while laying poolside, that I do not know much about poetry or the history of poetry. Since then, I have tried to find a book about the history of poetry, but have been unsuccessful. I was never a fan of poetry in my younger days because I never really understood it. Even now, I much prefer prose to poetry. I feel that much of modern poetry seems to be jibberish: people feel that they can write whatever they want in stanza form, and they call it “poetry.” Maybe that is why I have strayed away from writing poems for the most part. Now, I am not bashing poetry as an art form by any means; many writers I love are poets, including T.S. Eliot (my favorite poet), Charles Bukowski, Shakespeare ― even Joyce and Proust, my two favorite writers, both released some poems; I am also a big fan of epic narrative poems (my favorite being Dante’s Divine Comedy). What I am saying is that I wish I understood more about its history and development: thus, I have yet another project for this summer.

I was going to lead into some poems of my own, but I will postpone that to write about an article I just read on Yahoo News (one of my main sources of news, along with Wikipedia, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert ― the regular news is just two depressing, and I guess I don’t care enough; also, I rely on word-of-mouth to find out about “important stuff) about the NBA. Apparently, an ex-referee came forward and claimed that many games, including the finals, are rigged by referees. Examples include making bogus fouls to change the games outcome, or not fouling star players to keep them in the game and fans in their seats. Now, I am not much of a sports person at all: in fact, the only event I truly enjoy watching is NCAA’s March Madness, and the Olympics when they come around; I don’t even watch hockey anymore, like all loyal Canadians should (but please don’t report me, as I would like to keep my citizenship… haha). However, such a thing as rigging sports games so that they always go to seven game series in the finals or anything like that just seems like total bullshit. It’s already bad enough that many players are drafted right out of high school (and I’ve even read some are getting drafted earlier than this!) and only managed to pass their classes because of their academic abilities ― and yes, things like that have always bugged me, seeing that I have very little athletic talent and much prefer the arts; in fact, that was one of the reasons I despised Roy Barnes as the Governor of Georgia and was very happy he wasn’t re-elected (though I will say that my interest in politics is about equal with sports). It is examples like these that make me so uninterested in sports, along with the various players’ strikes that seem to come up every couple years. Apparently a seven figure salary just isn’t good enough for doing something most people (myself not included) dream of doing.

But, enough ranting about uninteresting subjects: back to poetry! Last summer I took an overview class on British Literature, which of course led to the discussion of poems, and more specifically sonnets; two of the most prominent sonneteers we studied were Shakespeare and Petrarch. Because of this, I was inspired to write a few sonnets of my own, which I thought were quite good at the time. I re-read them tonight, and chose the one that I thought was the best, and also most relevant, and then decided to revise it in order to see how my writing has changed over a year. Now, I will publish the two sonnets, and show the comparison. Enjoy, and let me know what you think.

The Summer Sonnet
June 30, 2007

In these days of summer, I’m mourning
The cooler temperatures of days old.
Because when I wake up in the morning,
My body cries out for a room that’s cold.

Not to say I dislike summer days;
On the contrary: I enjoy them quite.
My mind flashes to times of leaves and hays,
When outside weather didn’t cause a fight.

The cool weather opens my mind quite wide,
And nature it right at my fingertip.
But now I must do all my work inside
To avoid the sweat that makes it slip.

These summer months are fun and free indeed,
But cooler times are when I feel I need.

Summer Sonnet ‘08
June 10, 2008

Within these days of humid heat I mourn
The cooler temps of days not long ago.
‘Cause when I wake up in my bed at morn,
I wish the sticky air would just let go.

I would not say I dislike summer days;
To contrast, they bring me much happiness.
But yet I dream of times of leaves and hay
When the weather was not in such a mess.

The thought of cool weather cheers up my mind
And makes the hot weather seem bearable;
But yet I know that these thoughts will soon find
The place where good thoughts become terrible.

And so I will return to summer heat
With sweat pouring the way down to my feet.