Sonnet of a Ham
October 1947 QST

I have never been a fan of "free verse" poetry,

be it in the form of a sonnet or otherwise.

In my humble opinion,

poems that do not both rhyme

 and have some measure of meter

 represent laziness on the part of the "poet."

Without requiring poetry to rhyme,

all that is required to declare anything a poem

is to break the writing into poem-like lines,

et voilà - you have a poem.

It is like slinging a brush-load of paint

onto a canvas and calling it art.

Example -- I hereby proclaim the above to be a poem because I broke it into separate lines - see what I mean? That ain't no poem; we both know it.

 I will excuse the following example since it was written by a Ham about Amateur Radio - although most of its lines do actually rhyme. It does, fortunately, satisfy the definition of a sonnet regarding juxtaposing unrelated concepts. Sometimes it's just hard to find appropriate rhyming words, especially for ones like silver, angel, and bulb. Internet searches make finding rhyming words much simpler.

Sonnet of a Ham

Today I held the wide world in my hand;

Space rolled away and England's sun was low,

As Ken of Cambridge told me of his land.

Next, fast as thought, as he said, "Cheerio,"

I raced the sun, until at zenith time

O'er western plains I said "Hello" to Lee -

Then "73," and morning skies were mine

As John became my host at Waikiki.

The XYL recalled my wandering

To Georgia's pines, for dinnertime was nigh.

When, afterward, with Venus shimmering

Beside a thin new moon and Mars' red light,

I gazed their way, and wondered as night fell -

"Cannot we hold these in our hands as well?"

- Ewell G. Pigg, W4KGD

Posted October 20, 2022
(updated from original post on 7/19/2016)