PAD Day 26: A Sonnet To-Do List

 Today's prompts from Write Better Poetry and NaPoWriMo: (1) Write a "hermit crab" poem, and (2) Write a sonnet, or a poem that's "sonnet-shaped." A "hermit crab" poem, as Robert Lee Brewer describes it, is a poem that takes the form of another kind of writing, like a postcard, a recipe, a to-do list, an obituary, etc.

Maureen also suggested thinking of the sonnet in the format of a song, but my sonnet today isn't particularly musical. It actually reads more like a numbered set of instructions or "to-do" list for how to cope in these turbulent times. It's fourteen lines of ten syllables, with a Shakespearean rhyme scheme, but the meter is rather loose. 

A List for Surviving These Times
 
One: Stop harping that this world’s gone to hell.
Two: Find a good cause. Join it. Send money.
Three: Mail a card to Congress. Say, “Get well!”
Four: Be nice. You catch more flies with honey…
Five: Try to get others to see your side.
Six: Paint a sign with a pithy slogan.
Seven: Join a march and protest with pride.
Eight: Start a podcast. (Not like Joe Rogan!)
Nine: Play some music that inspires you.
Ten: Take a break from social media.
Eleven: Lose the funk that mires you.
Twelve: Get facts. (Not just Wikipedia.)
Thirteen: Seek shelter. There might be a storm.
Fourteen: Build a fire. Keep yourself warm.