Sonnets
Sonnets (7/9/17 – 7/17/18) By Zach Winters, ETA ’17-’18/ Photograph by Madeline Kasik 1. Arrival & Departure (7/9/17 – 8/18/17) In ringlets Summer set to bloom, She fathered and dismayed A generation of Herself, Herself from states displayed By tresses, corded Gnomic rock Split snakely from the grass, By Dandelion buds themselves Far inland waked from rest— But then light bent, and then begun that tyrant afternoon, Supplanting, from a sudden move, A miracle of June— And then the spiders and the birds were bathed in tawny sea, And then that August ocean dropped— And drowned stability— 2. Placement & Displacement (8/19/17 – 12/29/17) Will comets fly with light retracing gait? Will comets paint with light the sky above? Will you appear, and leave, and so restate That stronger sadness comes from stronger love? Which love is just, if love reject the pain That deepens when some speechless distance starts, Mere chorus love that joins in bright refrains, But quiets in the time that’s spent apart— Yet love like ours does not simply repeat, And so, to me, this distance is a chance To rediscover you each time we meet, With love not just recurring, but enhanced, And through horrendous space I realize this: I love you more, the more I learn to miss. 3. Pause & Expectation (12/30/17 – 3/4/18) The sweep of time is gentle in its bend Above the sprawling ocean of the years, And as it moves the water turns to tears In blinking eyes which sink and then ascend; And every hand that holds fast to a friend Will tremble as the current lifts and steers A wave that to the shoreline’s borders nears To evidence a time that’s at an end; But as these days speed on with steady haste, Like tides that hurry to the golden strand, This time we have is ours to use and waste While waves erase the traces of our plans— So if time does naught but push us to the sand, Then let us live forever on dry land— 4. (3/5/18 – 7/17/18) Goodbyes are little deaths That hit you on the plane, And only leave you when you cease To need those friends again. Goodbyes are little deaths That wake you from a dream, When all you wanted was to lie In waking ecstasy— Somewhere I heard goodbye Means learning how to miss, But everything I ever learned Could not prepare for this For everything I ever learned Was rearranged by this Zach Winters is a 2017-2018 ETA at Jeju Jungang Girls’ High School in Jeju city, Jeju-do.