Close Talking

Connor and Jack close out National Poetry Month 2021 with a series of episodes exploring the history and enduring popularity of one of poetry's iconic forms: the sonnet. To start off they travel back almost 800 years to the birth of the sonnet, discuss "Sonetto 26" by Giacomo da Lentini, and then zoom back to the present and dive into Terrance Hayes American Sonnet for my Past and Future Assassin." Sonetto 26 By: Giacomo da Lentini (Translation by Leo Zoutewelle) I’ve seen it rain on sunny days And seen the darkness flash with light And even lightning turn to haze, Yes, frozen snow turn warm and bright And sweet things taste of bitterness And what is bitter taste most sweet And enemies their love confess And good, close friends no longer meet. Yet stranger things I’ve seen of love Who healed my wounds by wounding me. The fire in me he quenched before; The life he gave was the end thereof, The fire that slew eluded me. Once saved from love, love now burns more. American Sonnet for my Past and Future Assas