Holy Sonnets for Holy Week?

Joan's inviting blog on writing in the Haiku form for Lent stirred me to try it, which I found to be a spiritual exercise worthy of serious consideration. Go back and check it out and try it this week if you haven't already done so.

Then, last week, when I was looking back at John Donne's sonnets on death, etc., in anticipation of Passion Sunday, it occurred to me that maybe the sonnet would also work as a spiritual exercise - a bit longer with more rules to follow, but hey, it's Holy Week! Time to do penance for all those lapses in your good intentions since Ash Wednesday (Am I the only one who had lapses? God, I hope not!).

A dream last night came surging back just now
With full force when I read the sacred word.
This Holy Week one knows not why or how,
But some thing deep within the soul is stirred:
If grain falls in the earth and time is ripe
A death brings forth its fruit in full array.
To contemplate one's life in just such light
May blunt those fears so often faced each day.
But breaking faith with ancient bonds within
Can be the work of more than just a dream.
So long did fear to know the way pretend
One knows not how to ford a different stream.

But God alone is who the soul knows best,
But only God puts all souls fear to rest.

Here is a link if you want to give it a try: www.dummies.com/how-to/content/writing-a-sonnet.html

Bob Stephenson