24.2.09

Rebel Sonnet failures (or rather, near misses)

I'm guessing the next couple of posts will be poems that I tried to write for the "rebel sonnet" assignment, which is a poem that remotely has anything to do with the sonnet form but makes choices to avoid the form in other ways. This means...just about anything. There are a variety of interesting ideas that can come. One of the most famous "rebel sonnets" is Terrance Hayes' Sonnet:

We cut the watermelon into smiles.
We cut the watermelon into smiles.
We cut the watermelon into smiles.
We cut the watermelon into smiles.
We cut the watermelon into smiles.
We cut the watermelon into smiles.
We cut the watermelon into smiles.
We cut the watermelon into smiles.
We cut the watermelon into smiles.
We cut the watermelon into smiles.
We cut the watermelon into smiles.
We cut the watermelon into smiles.
We cut the watermelon into smiles.
We cut the watermelon into smiles.


Mine is much worse. This is the rebel sonnet that I like least. We'll probably do 2 or so more of the four or five different poems I wrote, and one of them will be the poem I turned in. This is Hip Hop,:


Hip hop,

Please don't ever stop
Lovin' us as much as we love you,
We keep you alive
You keep us movin on through
To better days, as long as we strive
To beat the breakbread breakbeat
Of 9-5, in every way.
We abuse you, sweet
Woman, use you, and I know there ain't no way
You ain't out grown your birthplace.
We don't wanna, but we gotta unchain the leash, let go the lease
And let you get a taste
Of the freedom in pure release.