ABPA - Australian Bush Poets Association

Wedge Tails (sonnet #5)

This morning of a sunny winter’s day
I saw two specks against the bluest sky.
On thermals circled predators on high;
Two floating flecks, they searched the ground for prey;
Carefree, and kings of all that they survey.
Do these great birds in joyous spirit fly?
Or simply soar to reach a place to spy;
How can we know? The eagles will not say.

And man who claims dominion from his birth,
In truth has not the freedom of these birds
Who gaze uncaring on the human herds;
On man the wisest creature of the earth.
But could they trade their liberty for words,
They’d surely judge their wings of greater worth.

© Dennis N. O'Brien, 2012

Lovely Dennis - just lovely. Loud applause from me and I totally agree with 99% of your sentiments. Are men the wisest creatures on earth?????? I would doubt that at times

I love your poem

Cheers

Maureen

Mate - MARVELLOUS.

Sonnet No.5 ?

So there are others !!

Thanks Maureen and Jim.
Maybe not so wise at times Maureen.
Jim: Yes I've started numbering the sonnets to keep track of what's what.

Very nice, Dennis. What exactly is a sonnet?

Thanks Stephen. Well I'm no expert by a long way but
basically 14 lines of iambic pentameter in either
the English or Italian rhyming pattern/patterns is common.
This is an Italian sonnet and consists of an octave and sestet.
(8 then 6 lines).
There are lots or variations on the above.
I've written one with 11 syllables in the sestet and I still call it a sonnet.
I don't know whether there are many "bush" poems written in this form.
Can't see why not though.
I've posted another one in User's poetry.

Thanks for this, Dennis. I still don't get the appeal, though. What's so special about 14? I'd have been more impressed if you'd made the second verse eight lines also, following the same rhyming pattern as the first verse. Call me a pedant. (You wouldn't be the first...)

No Stephen, I wouldn't call you a pedant, you'll have to be a lot
more pedantic than that around here to earn that tag from me.

You just don't like sonnets that's all. If I did what you said it wouldn't then be
a sonnet, but then again perhaps I could and we could name it the
O'Brien/Whiteside sonnet variation - always wanted to be famous.

You'd have ABBAABBA ABBAABBA, wouldn't you - ABBAABBA squared, or ABBA to the power of four. There are some that say that one is more than enough, but I've always been rather fond of them. Are sonnets ever used as song lyrics?

Ah... so that's where they got their name from.

Well sonnet means "little song" so I guess a sonnet could be sung
but don't ask me to do it.