I have created a new sonnet form, the Baker Sonnet, and I’m introducing it in the Poetry Day Contests 2016 with Poets’ Roundtable of Arkansas. The Baker Nichols Award contest for this year is open to PRA members only. Some awards are open to Arkansas residents and some are open to all poets. Information on the contests may be seen here. Entries are not to be sent before June 1, 2016 and must be postmarked by August 15, 2016.
The Baker Sonnet form is fourteen lines of iambic pentameter and concludes with a couplet which may or may not be indented. The rhyme scheme is a-B-b-c-a-a-b-c-d-c-d-B-e-e. Note the repetition of lines two and twelve.
No Longer Mine
The rain falls damp onto the grass tonight.
My heart is sad because your love is gone.
The barren ground is cold where sun once shone.
The moon and stars no longer gleam above.
Somehow they hide their shine of silver light.
The darkest sky becomes my dreadful plight
as I begin to spend my time alone.
How can I go through life without your love?
Another holds you spellbound by her charms
as I give up the goals that I dreamed of.
I wait with aching heart and empty arms.
My heart is sad because your love is gone.
Once, I believed your promises were true.
My heart now breaks each time I think of you.
© Freeda Baker Nichols
Note: My poem example here is a work-in-progress. How does a poet know when a poem is ready for the printed page?
Freeda Baker Nichols 
I love the pic and the form. I used to only write in rhyme, then I took a creative writing class and the professor wouldn’ t let me. Now I do free verse, but I always find that rhyme sneaks inside. How to know when to post a poem…. I usually wait until it is published, if that is the goal. How to know when it’s done? It seems never! Some take longer than others…. the ones that come from a very difficult time. The title poem of my book took 5 years of rewrites! Good luck with your contest!
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Thank you. You’re so right –“it seems never” that a poem is complete, but that’s a good idea to wait until it’s published to post it on the blog.
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Thanks for following my blog. And now, I’m following your blog! Looking forward to when I have more time to look around your blog.
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creative for sure…and so beautifully sad!
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Marilyn, give the Baker Sonnet a try. Write something about your kitties. Compare them to each other. The older and the younger one. Not sure if you do poetry, but even if you don’t, it’s okay to try it. 🙂
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How fun to create a new sonnet form–even better to bring it into a contest. Are you helping to judge then?
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Yes, I sponsored this one and I’ll judge it.
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Good one! I like the photograph as well. It reminds me of some cabins I saw in the Smoky Mountains last fall.
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This cabin is not lived in now, but I have met the old gentleman who last lived there. Since he passed away several years ago, no one else has occupied the cabin, so far as I know. The yard appears well-kept, even now.
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I’m impressed that you’ve done this. I’m not sure when a poem is completely done, but I find if I write one,edit it several times and then let it sit a while, it still needs work.
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I have the same feeling, Dorothy. 🙂
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That’s so sad and beautiful, Freeda. So cool you have your own award.
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Thank you! I enjoy the poets’ group. If you have time, check out the contest page. You might find a contest you’d like to enter! I hope the link I provided will take you there.
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