There are a lot of different forms you can use in writing a sonnet. Shakespearean sonnets (as described before) introduce the problem or subject in the first three quatrains, and introduce the sharp turn in the last two lines, but here, the turn starts in the third quatrain, while the last two lines attempt to summarize the sonnet. This is closer to the Petrarchan sonnet, although the rhyme scheme here is still abab cdcd efef gg.


Snow in July
When snow does fall, the world begins to sleep:
Without a dream, it slumbers deep and wastes
Away throughout the night; when day does creep
So harshly in, the world, it us lambastes.

To rouse the world, to shake its very core,
The tools we used did set alight the grass;
The fields on which we wrote in days of yore
Have since been burned and turned to glass.

Now snow does fall in July, darkening
The sky; the world has lost its faith in us,
And thus it fades each night, hearkening
Our dying cries; but we’re superfluous.

The world, it sleeps, and thusly we do die;
We could’ve lived; and yet we didn’t try.


Happy holidays, dear readers. Here’s four tasteful tankas to pick you up and get you going.


The Train
Across the platform /
I see you, and you see me /
Stepping on the train /
Here in the empty carriage /
We’re alone, and you’re hunting.

The Carriage
Buckle unfastened /
Fly undone and hand on sheath /
You stand over me /
My heart pounds; I could be caught /
That only strengthens the urge.

The Rush
My tongue on your shaft /
Muzzle sliding over you /
Your paws on my head /
We have precious little time /
Yet you pull free, and pin me.

The Station
You’re under my tail /
Pressing me against the wall /
Each stroke is pure bliss /
The station comes into sight /
And you come to pieces in me.

- Charles Michael Averin