A
Wordy Sonnet
by
Jo Barbara Taylor
He
finds his words in ink drawn with pen,
wordy
landscape by Monet, still life
of
Vermeer, a portrait painted in wordspin
wording
the scene with pigment, palette knife.
Iamb
here, trochee there, word-
smithing
watchwords for a poet's eye and ear,
the
writer draws his sword, fences. Verb
and
noun, footwork to word the image clear.
Jousting
beckons the word-shy muse.
The
poet sketches, wordplay in tone and shade,
discovers
rhyme and meter in crossword clues.
Words
become ballad, ode, aubade,
or
sonnet, fourteen strokes, words emerging.
The
work of art comes in rewording.
Jo
Barbara Taylor lives in North Carolina, but is an Indiana farm
girl at heart. Her poems and academic writing have appeared in
journals, magazines, anthologies and online. How to Come and Go
(Chatter House Press 2016) is her fourth book. She leads
poetry-writing workshops through Duke Continuing Education, chairs
the workshop committee for the North Carolina Poetry Society, and
coordinates a poetry reading series for a Raleigh independent
bookstore.