Poem of the Week | September 30, 2019
Alejandro Pérez “Circular Sonnet”
This week’s Poem of the Week is “Circular Sonnet” by Alejandro Pérez!
Alejandro Pérez is a student at Columbia University in New York. He is a 2019 Pushcart Prize nominee whose poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Boulevard, Pacifica Literary Review, DIAGRAM, Blue Earth Review, DIALOGIST, Typehouse Magazine, decomP, and Spanish-language magazines in Venezuela, Chile, and Spain.
Circular Sonnet
sunday’s the day for remembering/
death / an elegy/ and monday’s a
sonnet/ that never breaks pentameter/
too rigid for expression/ too oppressive
for enjoyment/ and tuesday’s just a
ghazal/ a repetition/ of monday/ and
wednesday’s probably an epithalamium/
a celebration / of what we’ve been through/
of what’s to come/ and thursday’s an
ode to the future/ to friday/ and friday’s
a sestina/ plagued by the need to impress/
and saturday’s free verse/ so free it’s
oppressive/ so free no one knows how to
start or conclude/ and sunday is an elegy
Author’s Note
This poem came together because I was thinking about Fridays and how going out on Friday or doing something fun on Friday is almost an obligation for most. I was thinking about how it’s a day when people feel like they have to do something impressive and how I really hate that about Fridays. That’s when it occurred to me that a Friday was like a sestina, and I started thinking that maybe every weekday could be similar to some poetic form. And so, I realized that maybe our lives are controlled by form and order and structure and conventions, and that in a sense, by writing this sonnet in an unconventional way, I was rebelling a little against form.
SEE THE ISSUE
SUGGESTED CONTENT
Poem of the Week
Aug 10 2020
Matthew Gavin Frank “No Punchlines for the Endangered”
This week’s Poem of the Week is “No Punchlines for the Endangered” by Matthew Gavin Frank! Matthew Gavin Frank is the author of the nonfiction books, The Mad Feast: An… read more
Poem of the Week
Aug 03 2020
David Mura “A Soldier of The 100th: The Lost Battalion The Vosges”
This week’s Poem of the Week is “A Soldier of The 100th: The Lost Battalion The Vosges” by David Mura! David Mura has written four poetry collections: The Last Incantations,… read more
Poem of the Week
Jul 27 2020
Christine Gosnay “Philosophers Tell Us About the Form”
This week’s Poem of the Week is “Philosophers Tell Us About Forms” by Christine Gosnay! Christine Gosnay’s first book, Even Years (Kent State University Press, 2017), won the Stan and… read more