Sonnet 29 - by Stuart Barnes

ISLAND | ISSUE 159

i.m. Sandy Mitchell, after Shakespeare

‘Bruce’? Unforgettable, but ‘In Your Eyes’
I don’t remember, or the New York state
trio, or ‘I Don’t Remember’, or cries
of ‘Boum’, but I played the one that tells fate
on Sunday afternoon, and Weber’s hope 
-anthem, and ‘Let Me Love You’, you self-possessed
while talking about the flexible scope,
dialysis (‘A thrill to say the least’),
fearing God again, and Hell, despising
your deeds, but if anyone died in a state
of grace it was you (too young to hear sing,
with a great deal of feeling, at the Village Gate,
Blossom Dearie, whose whisper brings
on morning wings), O king of kings. ▼

Note: this poem is a terminal from Shakespeare’s ‘Sonnet 29’; a great deal of feeling and whisper are from Aaron Sternfield’s ‘Village Gate Swings With Triple Decker’, Billboard, 26 November 1966

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This poem appeared in Island 159 in 2020. Order a print issue here.

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