“Winding River” by Mr AMeeBa
The mortuaries for young hopes and dreams
Are built in middle age when first we find
Real obstacles impede the flow of streams
We mapped for navigation in our mind
But callow yearnings for romantic end
Should not be coffin-laid before their time
Such wonder is their power to transcend
The tortured course that challenges our prime
Experience yields choices grown more sage
Less likely to abjure a changing line
We modify our prospects as we age
Through crisis, chance or canny redesign
What matters after all is done and tied
Is did we find the bliss beneath the pride
(originally posted April 2013 – written years earlier)
Poesy plus Polemics 
Reblogged this on crjen1958.
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thank you for sharing my poem with your readers
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You’ve mentioned before that you don’t often like to rhyme, but I love this. Your usual strength with words and expression set to this rhythmic structure, it really is my cup of tea.
Thank you for this.
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your thoughtful comment and kind words are sincerely appreciated
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A masterful sonnet, Paul!
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thanks dearly, betty
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I raise a glass to finding your bliss and following.
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cheers
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LOVED the tongue tying and brilliantly confusing double-take grammar of “Is done and tied/is did …” Masterful! Really made me have to read and think about this… which of course made me reread the whole poem three times and appreciate it thoroughly…The concatenation of events that followed led me to read more of your poems and so on and so forth. Thanks a million!
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it is I who thank you, pamela, from the bottom of my heart
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The Chiefest Joy of Youth
(In reply to the sonnet “In Youth is Joy”
writ by Sir John Packington at the
Novato Renaissance Pleasure Faire)
In youth is joy, but age doth wrong redress
For which youth hath its every to thank
On age’s face doth nature lines impress
Harmon’ious lines! Youth’s visage is a blank
Wild youth doth all its energies abate
In prancing, stallion-like, about the field
It’s elder is content to rest and wait
And see what bounties patience’ fruits will yield
In love, our youths impassioned often be
And think that none their elder understand
They would be startled youths could they but see
A woman under well exper’ienced hand…
Well may’st it strut, well may’st it preen and prance
The chiefest joy of youth — is ignorance!
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excellent
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Love your handle on the sonnet form. Well done.
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much appreciated
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It’s refreshing to read a contemporary poem that follows rhyme and meter. As a senior, I can relate to the subject matter as well. 😉
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glad you enjoyed it – but truth to tell, I rarely use rhyming forms
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It’s a good exercise though. The best modern poetry is built upon the foundation laid down by the old poets—a sort of “standing on their shoulders” type thing.
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Actually a strong poem, I am positively surprised. I might discuss is in my near-daily anthology series. Do you have a one-line bio I could use?
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Hi, I just Tweeted the link to this poem @Kerr_Vernon
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many thanks for sharing my piece with your friends
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an aged citizen who (in 2004) retired to rural New Hampshire where he began writing the 22 volumes of poetry he has published to date
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This one of the tightest sonnets I’ve ever read. Beautifully written. And a gorgeous picture to boot!
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sincerest thanks for your kind words
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Pingback: “Sonnet to Middle Age” by Paul F. Lenzi | Richard H. Harris
thank you for sharing my poem with your readers
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The imagery is co complex, so mosaic leaving reader to contemplate its mystic enigma. Your poems are a pleasure to read. Anand Bose from Kerala
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I appreciate that more than you know
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I really enjoyed your sonnet. It gave me some perspective at a stressful point in my life. I’d love to see your opinions about the sonnet I wrote. (though it will post next Monday as per my schedule)
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I’ll try to remember to give it a read
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“Oh, See How Time Waits Like a Bitch in Heat” is on my blog today if you still want to read it.
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I love this. Thank you.
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much appreciated
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