Haiku Wednesday - Inhibition

Inhibition

Why think outside the

Box, but let inhibitions

Box in how you act?

But wait - there's more!

I hadn't written a sonnet in a while, but was reminded recently about this one by Edna St. Vincent Millay. Her musings here are not fanciful. Besides being a genuinely great poet, she was both bisexual and wildly promiscuous.

What Lips My Lips Have Kissed, And Where, And Why (Sonnet XLIII) 

What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why,
I have forgotten, and what arms have lain
Under my head till morning; but the rain
Is full of ghosts tonight, that tap and sigh

Upon the glass and listen for reply,
And in my heart there stirs a quiet pain
For unremembered lads that not again
Will turn to me at midnight with a cry.

Thus in winter stands the lonely tree,
Nor knows what birds have vanished one by one,
Yet knows its boughs more silent than before:
I cannot say what loves have come and gone,

I only know that summer sang in me
A little while, that in me sings no more. 

I wrote this response - or parody, if you want to see it that way.  I was especially taken with the imagery of the tree, and tried to use it to good effect.  I also tried to keep her end-rhyme words, but couldn't quite make that work.  I did keep the same rhyme scheme, and rhymes.  By some odd coincidence, it also fits today's haiku theme.


What lips my lips have missed, and stayed too dry:
The breath of comely girls, and young - or plain,
Their damp breath uninhaled. But now the rain
Makes the air moist tonight, Not ghosts that sigh

In forlorn memories of sad goodbye.
And in my heart there stirs a quiete pain
For girls untouched, unkissed, without a stain
Who never thrilled me with a midnight cry.

What memories has a lonely barren tree
Of lovely birds who flew past one by one
Whose brief beguiling echoed "Nevermore?"
No memories of nests it's never known.

The Summer-song unsung holds fast to me
In Winter's age, more precious than before.

Copyright 2010 JazzBumpa