My American Sonnet

 My American Sonnet


Has a bluegrass, blues, and country ballad vibe

and a train whistle from far off 

and a rambling man playing guitar in a box car

and it’s lonesome (it’s a rainy night in Georgia)

a deep baritone voice and a saxophone solo

 it feels like it’s raining all over the world 

He’s thinking maybe head out west 

Maybe there’s still time for adventure 

always wanted to walk the great divide

See the desert, watch the stars at night 

If he gets set up before winter, if things are going good 

Maybe she’ll meet him if he sends her down the fare

Drifting off to sleep on the box car floor dreaming

 to the sad refrain of a rainy night in Georgia.


write an “American sonnet.” What’s that? Well, it’s like a regular sonnet but . . . fewer rules? Like a traditional Spencerian or Shakespearean sonnet, an American sonnet is shortish (generally 14 lines, but not necessarily!), discursive, and tends to end with a bang, but there’s no need to have a rhyme scheme or even a specific meter.

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