May 5: "Octopus Sonneteer," a Little Fun, "Lilac Poetry"

What do you get when you cross Billy Collins with a mollusk?

Octopus Sonneteer

by:  Billy Collins

He wrote the octave

all at once

the dashed off the final six

while uncorking a bottle of champagne.

Billy Collins is having a little fun with this poem.

I did not have a whole lot of fun today, aside from leading a lovely poetry workshop with some friends this evening.  Spent the day grading and wishing I wasn't grading.

However, when I took my puppy out for a walk around my backyard this afternoon, I did notice that my lilac bushes are sprouting green leaves and purple buds, which means the summer is closer than I thought.

When Saint Marty submits his final grades, that will be the official start of summer.

Lilac Poetry

by:  Martin Achatz

I watch the bushes

revise my backyard

into bruised monostiches,

couplets, tercets

until I wake one morning

to the perfume of a purple

Paradise Lost.