*****

At the age of twenty five the poet was handed by her haiku teacher a small velvet covered book of blank parchment.

A few days later she wrote her first Elizabethan sonnet ~ composing, over the next decade, over seven hundred and fifty of them, along with an additional eight hundred pages of original work, before losing all of it in her first period of homelessness.

Perhaps fifty to one hundred of those lost pages have since been recreated from memory, and the sonnet offered here is one of them ~ originally penned very early in the lost series, at some time in the poet’s mid twenties.

*****

Recorded Reading (1:03): https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/xfzui2rpj7xhsue2kq8co/Come-Destiny.mp3?rlkey=7edj00rjj6zokqh5k332j3oyz&dl=0

*****

Come, Destiny

Come Destiny, thou wild haired, wanton wench!
Thou wouldst as soon destroy as e’en behold —
Come pluck me from this wooden student’s bench,
My soul with awesome, windy wings enfold!

I see thee, waiting near me in the wood
So vigilant — I never see thee sleep
Thine rapier drawn, on this side of it good
The other evil far away to keep

Yet should I slip upon the twisting path
Or fail to see a sign, or miss a door
I know I should incur thine instant wrath
Nor be permitted earthly light the more

For ’twas to thee that I was consecrate
When midwifed by the iron hand of fate

*****

Until removal of the stalker/targeter/vandal/arsonist following her allows her to approach any landlord ~ even for a private parking space ~ and to begin once again to create professional connections and to rebuild her life, this poet presently lives homeless and at a fraction of her nation’s poverty level ~ still working to contribute to her society, however, seven days a week.

Arts patrons may visit http://www.UgiftABLE.com , using code #72D-31S. It does take several days for the poet to be notified of your patronage.

Thank you for supporting quality in the fine arts.