HP #1

For years I honored the series of books
that kids and adults read, and when I looked
at bestsellers Harry P always took
#1 because of the author's hook.

The time to write this poem is time I'm not
reading. I finished chapter one and plot
cues are blooming. I'll leave work on the dot
to read more about the orphan's jackpot.

As a bookseller I saw these books sell
like a gold rush. I saw bored eyes turn well
from reading. I kept my HPless cell,
but welcomed cues from co-workers who tell.

I'm reading this for a book club. Who knew?
I'm cleaning shelf space for book #2

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Yay! This is the last poem of my metro-train-work poetry project; thirty-one poems in total, and the metro rail work will be done before my next work day.

I started this project with a couple goals. I would write sonnets. They would be 10 syllables across and 14 lines. Word choice was very important. As a result I have a rhyming dictionary, regular dictionary and a thesaurus. I focused on a few rhyme schemes:  AAAA/BBBB/CCCC/DD; ABABABAB CDCDCD; ABAB BCBC CDCD EE. 

I learned a few things:
1. Rhythm or scansion is as important as rhyme. I didn't focus on scansion, and I felt that some lines felt ragged.  
2. Rhymes are good for fast action. They don't have to be used all the time, but even a rhyme at the end of a line with a rhyme in the middle of the next line moves the action forward. This is a powerful tool, and using rhymes should have a purpose.
3. Some of the most popular sonnets from famous sonnet writers (Shakespeare, St. Vincent Milay, Neruda) are a narrator talking to another person. This makes sense. I realized 14 lines is quite short. It's not a place for an epic story, but could be a great place to explore one emotion with acute sensitivity to action, or with a one-sided discussion.

I'm developing my next project, which will probably be a sonnet project again. Digging deep in the emotion of an action is not easy for me, but if I am successful it may take my sonnet writing up a couple notches.
There is no such thing as leftover pizza. There is now pizza and later pizza. - anonymous
The risk I took was calculated, but man, am I bad at math - The Mincing Mockingbird
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