Pushing on a Poetic String
(a Terza Rima 14-line sonnet: an homage to Dante Alighieri and Percy Shelley)
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For twenty years and more now I have tried
composing verse (or “poetry”). A start
meant emulating masters. I’ve not shied

away from challenges considered smart
but sought them out in libraries of books
where longtime they have slept, in whole or part.

Once words or phrases catch you in their hooks
(Alliteration, assonance, or rhyme),
Mnemosyne no inattention brooks.

To drink of Lethe’s waters is a crime.
Forgetfulness must somehow be forestalled.
Mythology and metaphor thus chime

with scene and sound. No matter how recalled:
Approvingly or – in my case – appalled.

Before Mankind could read and write, we sang.
The tune dictated what the mind can hold.
In case of entertainment or harangue,

the tribal “leadership” could plead or scold.
First came the (downward) threats, then (upward) bribes.
Fast forward through millennia all told

and now we’re back to Show-and-Tell. Our scribes,
except for movie scripts, find less to write.
the standard bullying and diatribes

their old employers needed now seem trite.
The cell phone (Artificial Ignorance)
has left upon humanity a blight

of helplessness, technology’s new trance:
Each of us in Big Brother’s baleful glance.