448 and 449

I watch with all the patience of that spy

who waited by the door in that dread tale

that Poe told, of the beating heart, but I—

I will not lose my own patience, nor fail.

‘Tis been four hours, and four hours more

I’ll watch here, waiting for the perfect time

that my mute quarry will be ripened o’er

upon the eighth and final hour’s chime.

Poe’s man was vexed by his poor victim’s eye,

and I, too, by the twinkling of mine’s own.

Its eye that never shuts, but lingers by,

that indicates when its time will be known.

That eye: of time and temperatures the watt:

I am the predator of the crock pot.

~~~

An iamb here, and then an iamb there,

and then three more to make th’initial line;

and do that several times, make fourteen square,

with rhymes loose, or fastidiously fine.

You may find that three stanzas gives a frame

to what you want to say in such a set:

one thought, then two, then three, and then you claim

your last succinct image in a couplet.

That’s one way. Do whatever that you want.

Do not let esoterists speak for you.

And did I mention? Do be nonchalant :

when Webster’s words don’t fit—invent one new.

And you will have much pleasure in it yet,

if you will dare to write your own sonnet.