#napowrimo Day 16 - “Spark”

Hey y’all. I’m halfway through writing a poem a day for National Poetry Month 🙌🏾 I’m proud of myself for persisting. Today’s prompt is to write a curtal sonnet. The curtal sonnet is a form invented by Gerard Manley Hopkins; it is a ten-and-a-half-line sonnet. Here’s my attempt:

Day 16 - SPARK

By Farah Lawal Harris

Many people seek to find a spark of passion one day

so they chase moments of ecstasy to validate existence

because “Why are we really here?” To find our way,

so two stones they beat together with persistence.

The stone on the left is what’s right;

the one on the right, something else.

And that something else is worth the fight

Because I don’t want to disappoint myself.

But lately the rocks feel too heavy to beat.

The stone on the left rests in my lap, the other

at my feet.