Traditional Poetry form and war. Romancing the critics.

Is there a sonnet worth a new assault
on the abattis of bias we’ve borne;
would storm the ramparts of modernist scorn
with results of form and rhyme without fault,
yet say what need be said so all exult
in the silver-tongue truths which touch the torn
to lay down their arms and embrace its thorn;
realize it’s alright to call the halt?
Fort Wagner* of the word-song why choose war?
Want me too; let me woo you in that way
legendaries did what romantics do.
Hurl me back to my decimated corps
and we both lose. We need a brighter day;
choosing life** and hating war: A breakthrough.

© Helga Ross 2006

* Fort (Battery) Wagner, Charleston SC – assaulted twice in the Civil War.
The Second Assault is better known. Led by the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, it was the first major American military unit made up of African Americans. Beseiged but never taken in battle. Confederate defenders endured almost 60 days of heavy shelling, then abandoned it.

** Deuteronomy 30: 15-19