Epic Schmepic
To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour. ~ William Blake
The scales of sonnets and of haiku tempt
Some readers to reject the smaller forms
As less imposing, holding in contempt
The tiny ones, implying that the storms
Around our sun are more important than
Tornados in the human heart. In Greece
The breakthrough came. Greece noted that a man
Is measure of all things. Far too obese
The epic poems tend to be. A night
Inside a haiku can contain sky, fire,
The sea, an island and a zooming flight
Up past the Milky Way through man’s desire.
The sonnet, only small in lines and rhyme,
Discovers depth’s eternity in time.
~ Phillip Whidden
by phillipw | Aug 9, 2024 | Uncategorized |