Poems About Poets Ix

POEMS ABOUT POETS IX Fleet Tweet: Apologies to Shakespeare by Michael R. Burch a tweet by any other name would be as fleet! @mikerburch Fleet Tweet II: Further Apologies to Shakespeare by Michael R. Burch Remember, doggonit, heroic verse crowns the Shakespearean sonnet! So if you intend to write a couplet, please do it on the doublet! @mikerburch Stage Fright by Michael R. Burch To be or not to be? In the end Hamlet opted for naught. Ophelia by Michael R. Burch Ophelia, madness suits you well, as the ocean sounds in an empty shell, as the moon shines brightest in a starless sky, as suns supernova before they die ... Shakespeare's Sonnet 130 Refuted by Michael R. Burch Seas that sparkle in the sun without its light would have no beauty; but the light within your eyes is theirs alone; it owes no duty. Whose winsome flame, not half so bright, is meant for me, and brings delight. Coral formed beneath the sea, though scarlet-tendriled, cannot warm me; while your lips, not half so red, just touching mine, at once inflame me. Whose scorching flames mild lips arouse fathomless oceans fail to douse. Bright roses’ brief affairs, declared when winter comes, will wither quickly. Your cheeks, though paler when compared with them?—more lasting, never prickly. Whose tender cheeks, so enchantingly warm, far vaster treasures, harbor no thorns. This was my first sonnet, written in my teens after I discovered Shakespeare's "Sonnet 130." Attention Span Gap by Michael R. Burch What if a poet, Shakespeare, were still living to tweet to us here? He couldn't write sonnets, just couplets, doggonit, and we wouldn't have Hamlet or Lear! Yes, a sonnet may end in a couplet, which we moderns can write in a doublet, in a flash, like a tweet. Does that make it complete? Should a poem be reduced to a stublet? Bring back that Grand Era when men had attention spans long as their pens, or rather the quills of the monsieurs and fils who gave us the Dress, not its hem! Heaven Bent by Michael R. Burch This life is hell; it can get no worse. Summon the coroner, the casket, the hearse! But I’m upwardly mobile. How the hell can I know? I can only go up; I’m already below! Chip Off the Block by Michael R. Burch for Jeremy In the fusion of poetry and drama, Shakespeare rules! Jeremy’s a ham: a chip off the block, like his father and mother. Part poet? Part ham? Better run for cover! Now he’s Benedick — most comical of lovers! Keywords: Shakespeare, sonnet