Monday, April 6, 2015

PAD Day 6: A Morning Song

Today's dual prompts from Poetic Asides and NaPoWriMo:
(1) Write a "things aren't what they seem" poem, and 
(2) Write an aubade.

An "aubade" is traditionally a "morning song", a poem written by someone leaving their lover in the early morning. I wrote a sonnet called "January Aubade" a few years ago that was published in The Lyric, and it would actually fit both prompts pretty well. Today's poem I poked and prodded into a sonnet, too, and I guess it turned out okay.  I'm excited that today's guest judge at Poetic Asides is Molly Peacock - I took a workshop with her a few years ago at the late lamented West Chester Poetry Conference, and she is a lovely person, as well as a fine teacher and poet.  It was a workshop on the villanelle, so I was tempted to write one of them, but I thought an aubade seemed to fit better into the sonnet form than the villanelle.



Robin's Aubade

The sun, that warm alarm, has caught me waking -
I see your sleeping form curled in our bed.
The view from here at daybreak is breathtaking -
the budding trees, the pink clouds overhead.
I hear the neighbors too, their music drifting
in on chilly air. So rise, my lovely mate -
I'll sing a morning song, something uplifting.
I'll take you out for breakfast - don't be late! -
a place whose owner puts out quite a spread.
I've got an early flight, and true to form,
I'm all decked out, as usual, in red,
and you've our unborn children to keep warm.
I will return with worms, and straw and string -
I'll spread my wings, but you're my everything.


1 comment:

Vince Gotera said...

Hey Bruce ... very clever way to merge those two prompts. Bravo! And nice sonnet with a fun surprise.

I think you'll like the surprise I built in to the end of my day six sonnet. :-D