Thursday, January 21, 2010

Jackpine Sonnets

I learned today that the good folks at Geist are holding a jackpine sonnet contest. I don't usually enter poetry competitions, but this one's sorely tempting. I've written many jackpine sonnets (such as the recently published "I", which I thought would be a more orthodox sonnet at first, but click, it insisted on ending 11 lines in) over the years and to some degree the jackpine principle informs my whole approach to stanza and meter--i.e., do it by ear, not according to a prescribed set of rules. The jackpine principle is also in evidence in many, if not most, of the sonnets in Jailbreaks (the title was chosen in part to hint at that).

Anyway, it's good to see people actively keeping Acorn's legacy alive. There's been not quite enough of that, it seems to me.

3 comments:

Evie Christie said...

That's so awesome.

Jonathan Ball said...

Zach, your site has been suspended, by a jackpine-hater no doubt.

Zachariah Wells said...

Thanks for the heads up, Jonathan. My webmaster (little brother) is transferring my domain from one host to another, so the site'll be down for the transition.