ONE-SENTENCE SONNETS

I

                          

I’m on my way and shall not stop until

I’ve filled this sonnet’s form right to the end.

Following the pattern that great Will

Shakespeare preferred, with help my Muse may lend,

And, if I may, I’ll make a tour de force

A sonnet that’s a single sentence long

Yet seems completely uncontrived, unforced,

As in the dawn you hear a robin‘s song

That thrills you with commodious melody

And leaves you then inspired to try your own

In emulation of that prodigy,

Hoping you may indeed usurp its throne

     Proving yourself as skillful as the Bard

     By making something difficult seem not hard.

II

If this were the last sonnet that I write—

Fear not, since that is surely not the case—

What would I say, perhaps to give insight

Into what I experience as Grace

When I sit down to muse and to compose

And out of nowhere notions start to flow

And, if I’m patient, take me to its close

Where I discover what I did not know

When I began, which leaves me feeling blessed

And wondering what Providence prevails,

As if I were by grace itself possessed

That brings such new creation into being

     In imitation of its holy ways,

     That Source which warrants our eternal praise.

AFTERWORD  

 
Gentle Reader,

What you’ll find below is an upside-down anthology of sorts: a journal of my frequent morning musings from January 2008 till now, in reverse order.


Much of what I write here is verse in traditional rhymed iambic pentameters, old fashioned in form but contemporary in topics and idiom. It asks to be read aloud so that the effects of rhyme and meter may be felt.


Sometimes I write brief prose essays, but even my verses are essays, or attempts, pursuing a line of thought to some conclusion, though more sonorously than those in prose: discursive verses, I call them.


In either case, you’re the reader over my shoulder as I write, which makes my writing different than when I have no audience in mind but only a vague urge to express. So I thank you for whatever attention you give my words and thoughts and feelings because you might so easily attend to something else, and you soon will.


To beguile you to linger longer, though, I’ve coupled most of my compositions with a photo or image I’ve taken or borrowed, which often corresponds with my words of that day.

Thank you for visiting here.  I hope you enjoy your stay and are moved to come back soon.

—Alan Nordstrom

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COSMIC  CONSCIOUSNESS

                    Suddenly a veil was blown away—
                    And I viewed depths of sight I’d never seen,
                    A marveling mind, enraptured by the play
                   Of wonderful ideas, bright and keen,
                   Revealing realms of wisdom, heretofore
                   Incomprehensible, for me to seize
                   Now that my fluttering mind could swiftly soar
                   Exploring spacious vistas of insight
                   Until the splendor of this vision faded
                  As swiftly as it flared, though still delight
                  Remains in memory, and now decades
                     From then, I bless that peak I once attained
                     The full potential of my mind unchained.

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