Glosa

The PAD challenge prompt for today is to write a Glosa poem,  a Spanish form that works as well in the English language as in Spanish.   Glosas open with a quatrain from another poet, each line containing an epigram, followed by four ten-line stanzas terminating with the lines of the initial passage in consecutive order.  The sixth and ninth lines should rhyme with the borrowed tenth.  My opening quatrain is the final four lines of    William Shakespeare’s  Sonnet 76

So all my best is dressing old words new,
Spending again what is already spent:
For as the sun is daily new and old,
So is my love still telling what is told.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To write good poetry
is near impossible
without a knowledge
of form and metre –
in isolation, not enough
without example as a cue.
Read and read
until you’re filled
with beauty turned askew
so all my best is dressing old words new.

Fumbling in a fog
the poet searched
for something new to write,
disentangling his store
of the master’s prosody,
quotations already lent
to his successors
likewise seeking
for the gems that poet sent,
spending again what is already spent.

How can we be original
when so much  is already written;
how turn a mundane thought
with skill into a verse of beauty;
without unconscious copying?
How dare we be so bold
to ape the bard,
without his genius,
outshining us tenfold?
As the sun is daily new and old

perhaps time changed  the import
of the earlier words
to  new significance
within the context of our modern world.
Perhaps on supplication
the bard may not withhold
consent for us to try
to write a worthwhile sonnet
which will shine anew as gold.
So is my love still telling what is told?

Given the time constraints of the challenge, and being out for a birthday lunch for Jock, this is inevitably a crude draft.  But I enjoyed the form, and shall work on it again later.

At Hannah’s suggestion, I’m linking this at With Real Toads Open Link , and would be glad of any suggestions for improvement.  Also linked at dVerse Poets’ pub, where you will find lots of lovely poetry.