In honor of the delightfully fun (and not gonna lie, super in-the-weeds nerdy) sonnets workshop I taught this weekend, here is a curtal sonnet for your enjoyment.

“Release” by R. S. Gwynn

Slow for the sake of flowers as they turn
     Toward sunlight, graceful as a line of sail
          Coming into the wind. Slow for the mill––
Wheel’s heft and plummet, for the chug and churn
     Of water as it gathers, for the frail
          Half-life of spraylets as they toss and spill.

For all that lags and eases, all that shows
     The winding-downward and diminished scale
          Of days declining to a twilit chill,
Breathe quietly, release into repose:
          Be still.

***

For detailed biographical information on R. S. Gwynn, click here to be taken to his Poetry Foundation page. But also? He lives and teaches in east Texas, not that far from Houston.