Never having written one myself, I had to turn to Your Friend and Mine the Inter-Web to remind myself that an English sonnet is fourteen lines of iambic pentameter, meaning five stressed syllables (alternated with five mellow, relaxed syllables.)
Since so much of my attention has been on the world premiere of my first play HOLIDAZED, I was inspired to pay tribute to our troupe of truly outstanding actors.
Ode to the Actors
You ride the laughter like it was a wave,
Yet live inside the world that is the play.
Like errant knights who must be bold and brave
You make the giant blackened beast your prey.
I revel in the wonder of your craft,
The way emotion bubbles like a spring
And makes me weep as much as I have laughed
And sets my heart to dance a highland fling.
To watch you listen, see you hear, is bliss.
And bliss it is to listen and to hear
The words I dream’d, the dream I had exists,
A living creature crossing a frontier.
I thank you, actors, for your artistry
And for the precious gift you’ve given me.
