The Storm

The wind blows with a crash and storms the earth

Streaks of air catch wisps of hair hold my breath

The ground rises, turns in circles, ascends

My eyes grow dark, torsos twine together their girth

Shutting out light, through bars of limbs, a death,

Chain me to the bark of blasted tree, it ends,

Break the day free with a snap, crack the dead wood,

with a crack, a beating breast, an open chest

Nature rends, this way wends, that way bends

With fallen night, a barricade, morning’s path once could,

Now, just, dead-ends.

∞

Submitted as part of “National/Global Poetry Writing Month” (#NaPoWriMo #GloPoWriMo).

Today’s prompt: Day Sixteen: “Today, I’d like to challenge you to write a curtal sonnet. This is a variation on the classic 14-line sonnet. The curtal sonnet form was developed by Gerard Manley Hopkins, and he used it for what is probably his most famous poem, “Pied Beauty.” A curtal sonnet has eleven lines, instead of the usual fourteen, and the last line is shorter than the ten that precede it. Here are two other examples of Hopkins’ curtal sonnets: “Ash Boughs,” and “Peace.”

Note: I used this rhyme scheme as my guide:
Line 1: a
Line 2: b
Line 3: c
Line 4: a
Line 5: b
Line 6: c
Line 7: d
Line 8: b
Line 9: c
Line 10: d
Line 11: c