July, 2000

THE FUNNY-SONNET DEBATE
©  by  Keith S. Petersen

 

I wrote Fred Chappell:   Fred, I said, I bet
you cannot even name, nor could you write,
a sonnet that is really funny, light
enough to let us chuckle and forget
how somber sonnets are, how filled with threat --
or blight or fret or flight or sweat or fright;
that makes us dance instead, soar like a kite
on laughing breezes sonnets won't beget.

Ole Fred, he wouldn't follow where I led.
I offered my can't-do poetic chore
and he'd not say, not so, or yes, agreed,
but burbled on to other stuff instead --
which grants the point this sonnet would explore:
No sonnet seeking laughter will succeed.

 

Previously published in the North Carolina Poetry Society's
"Award Winning Poems, 2000"
Used with the permission of the Poet.

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