The Sonnet and the Muse

Also an exciting discussion on a podcast

Some days ago I decided to write a sonnet to the fork. Now, what I had in mind was a slightly sentimental ode to one of my own dinner forks. But what the muse had in mind proved to be different altogether: a more humorous and generalized look at this “useful implement”.

It is one of the dilemmas of the poet, and in this case I decided I had best write this version down in hopes of clearing the air for a future stab at writing according to my original ideas. Perhaps in the next week or so… but at the moment I am working on a brief poem about coyotes.

Meanwhile we have this poem. And lest there be any confusion, yes, the fork has in fact been around for millennia. Though I mention its triumphant arrival in France, it came to Venice from Byzantium, and so on back through time as a cooking implement. It did, however, arrive on the westernmost tables of Europe via the Medicis, thus securing its unchallenged role in fine dining. Bon appétit!

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Sonnet to the Fork

Today I celebrate the simple fork,
That spare and elegant aristocrat
Which blends the usefulness of scoop and torque
And spear and slice and many things like that.
Unlike the spoon or knife, the fork came late–
Most fashionably late–with pedigree
From arbiter of taste Italianate,
The royal Catherine de Medici,
Who introduced the useful implement
In royal feasts of France. And thus we find
Its progeny from tiny condiment
To giant serving fork, to close aligned
The short and long, for salad or for meat–
Forks all from fish to after-dinner sweet!

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In two unrelated haiku I give you a glimpse of Thursday morning outside and Saturday morning inside.

Sunlight falls bright gold
through pale mesquite leaves bobbing
beneath one small bird.

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Saturday morning,
stroking my dog's head. Tongue flicks;
wet patch on my arm.

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Finally—and most excitingly—I recently was featured in the #trpplffct poetry podcast with Arjan Tupan! (Yes, that bold text contains a link!)

We discussed why I love poetry, and why I enjoy working with many different poetic forms, along with—of course—my reading of one of my tritriplicata poems.

The tritriplicata was developed by Arjan himself, and this wonderful form began our poetry friendship. My most recently published tritriplicata can be found in this ACM Weekly post from last month.*

In the podcast I read Entry of a Storm from last October.

It was a great time to share the joys of poetry, some thoughts about poetry in general and form poetry in particular. I hope you will check out this podcast episode!

Happy Monday!

*Edit: It turns out I published another tritriplicata just this month—how could I forget? It is in my New Year’s post.