American Sonnet
Today we’d like to challenge you to write an “American sonnet.” What’s that? Well, it’s like a regular sonnet but . . . fewer rules? Like a traditional Spencerian or Shakespearean sonnet, an American sonnet is shortish (generally 14 lines, but not necessarily!), discursive, and tends to end with a bang, but there’s no need to have a rhyme scheme or even a specific meter.
The voice and the machine
She spoke in a broken voice finely
He held the microphone next to her for fifteen minutes
A small sacrifice compared to the million big and little
obstacles she was forced to face every day
Many voices of people disabled by the rest of us
Were heard over the course of the hearing
Organised in wonderful solidarity
True altruism, a recognition of shared goals
When the government people spoke
They spoke of thier own organisational needs
In many voices, clanging together awkwardly
Trying to squeeze their little agendas into something resembling a strategy
The irony of a well-organised diversity, asking for recognition
From a patchwork-machine