Poetry Thursday| Breaking News

May 1, 2026

This week’s prompt is: News.

I decided to try my hand at a sonnet; I suspect this does not scan:

BREAKING NEWS

Once again my representative tops
the list of the most corrupt. Who will we
be, without the Bill of Rights? What will stop
this erosion of our character, the sea

eating at our coastlines; greed and lust
overpowering the powerful? Needless
wars and careless heat, the coming dust
of devastated forests — heedless,

we entertain ourselves, evening after
evening, stories of murder, rage and
retribution — diversions from disaster,
actual and impending — this sacred land

and others, no less beautiful, alive —
who will we be, should we survive?

4 responses to “Poetry Thursday| Breaking News”

Dave

October 12, 2006

I wonder that too, all the time.

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SB

October 12, 2006

Which?
Who?
Or should we?

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Catherine

October 12, 2006

It probably doesn’t scan if you want it to be iambic pentameter, but it can be read more naturally and it makes a fine poem – though the rhyme isn’t obvious, then, except for the last couplet. (Maybe it’s a perfectly fine poem because the rhyme isn’t obvious).
I like the double meaning of the sea eating at our coastlines.
Thanks for the poems you linked in the comments on my blog. I liked your letter to a friend in China, and I can see why mine reminded you of it.

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TwilightSpider

October 13, 2006

I feel this all the time – all of the horrific news is no more than a distraction. We close our eyes and ignore the tiny destructions that happen just under our noses and will have the most devastating effects of all.

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