Sonnet for The Fantasticks

Two lovers, young and full of growing beans,
Have twined together thanks to fathers' plot,
Each seedling nursed by cleverest of means, 
For gardening requires the best you've got! 
A dashing caballero soon appears;  
Now all that's sown may gracefully be reaped.
The harvester extracts his fee of tears
And leaves, apparently, love's bounty heaped!
Still something isn't right, one must admit;
The light of day can rot desire's bliss!
In truth, reality is full of it---
Composed and fallow sans romance's kiss!
	Keep walls in place, I pray; a garden's grace
	Should always grow in shelt'ring love's embrace!

Sonnet for Harvey

How fortunate to play a certain role,
And in that playing, find uncertain fate
Resplendently unveiled in parted whole,
Voluptuously stated as we wait
Each cue, each pendant word, to prompt reply!
Yet, woe!  We never know what to expect
In heat of drama;  whether words will fly 
So true as we would like them to connect
With deeper truths, and thus our work impressed
Into the beating hearts and minds of all
That might be witness to our playful best! 
How fortunate the privilege of the call!
	Until the final curtain falls, we must
	Sustain the play put in our certain trust!

Sonnet for Annelle, Clairee, M'Lynn, Ouiser, Shelby, and Truvy

Six primavera blooms, a florist's dream, 
Take root and flourish within Venus' loam, 
Enchanting beauty's womb with what would seem
Embellishment by mirror, spray, and comb! 
Lest any think sweet plot idyllic grows,
Mark well the fairest blossom of them all; 
A zest for life and love's belief she knows
Gives fullest joy to memory past fall! 
No matter that the summer goes too fast
Or winter offers premature embrace;
Life's brightest flowers only briefly last,
In spite of grief, to bless us with their grace!
	All blossoms must eventually fade;
	Six will in one, though, ever be remade!

Sonnet for Of Mice and Men

One guy can only bear the weight so long
For fellowship, 'til something has to give.
Misfortune spares no mercy on the strong;
It seems that innocence must die to live.
Consider well the loneliness of life:
Extremes are born of emptiness inside;
Alone, there is no end to heartless strife, 
Nor heaven's dreams enough to quell the tide. 
Despite our best intent, things go awry;
Mistakes are made, and enemies as well.
Each one of us must search for answers why;
No doubt, though, heaven's plans encompass hell:
	The poet's words writ large in Steinbeck's ken,
	"Gang aft agley" the schemes "o' mice an' men."

A Sonnet for Sophocles' Antigone

A principled young maid puts up her life
In pay for reverent disobedience. 
Not so Ismene: loathe to hasten strife,
She cannot aid Antigone's offence. 
Thus quandries, then, are posed: what shall decide? 
Might solitary conscience trump the state?
Is rule of law more precious or blood's tide? 
Eternal questions, all; is it mere fate
Grants meaning to one's life, or might perchance
Nobility of pure intent redeem 
One's baser claims, though others look askance?    
Events thought certain most uncertain seem;  
	No easy answers found in life or death,
	Except they live in every dying breath.

Another Sonnet for Sophocles' Antigone

The fate of man is in the hands of gods;
In peril of one's life does one rebel.
Regrettably we can't defy the odds
Established by the seers who so foretell.
Success must nonetheless be won by will, 
In test of duty's strength to gods and men;
All mortals must their destiny fulfill,  
Submissive to the gods' unearthly ken.
Humanity and duty bear a curse,
As Creon and Antigone have learned;
Each passionately named the other worse,
Mistaking duty's love for duty spurned.
	One cannot change the rule of gods divine,
	Nor alter slightest whit of their design.

Sonnet for Little Shop of Horrors

An interesting plant grown oddly strange
(Unusually so by treats it eats!)
Demands sanguine repast to--oh, my!--change,
Refusing all but sticky, licky sweets!
Each new infusion of its favorite food
(You know, the kind that makes an icky mess!)
Transfuses pod's carniv'rous attitude
With gallons of sanguivorous finesse!
Once freed from need of speed to feed its greed
(Reality is grim---its need is slim!)
Until, indeed, the weed has spread its seed,
Look out!  There is no more impeding him!
	Expect the worst; the pod's no longer gaunt!
	Soon all the world will be its restaurant!

The Return of Sonnet for Little Shop of Horrors

Skid Row ain't such a seemly place that much
Enriches lives nor teems with happiness,
Yet geeks and bimbos seek the Midas touch   
More seedily than some in such a mess!
Of greener pastures they naively dream;
Unfortunately, they need realize
Reality is such that they may scheme
And win, yet innocence in balance dies!
A deal with the devil may seem good
Until it's time to pay the devil's due;
Despite the best intentions, greed is food
Redeeming evil's appetite anew! 
	Examine all you seeming do and don't;
	You know the devil will whene'er you won't!

The Bride of Sonnet for Little Shop of Horrors

These urchins know what's up down on Skid Row!
How this is so may seem irrelevant,
Except our trio helps show how things go
Downhill when dealing with a hungry plant!
Odd happenings in wholesale botany
Occur concurrently with sun's eclipse;
When day returns with Audrey Two, you see,
Our chorus knows who's gonna come to grips!
Poor Seymour's tripped upon a planted plot  
Got big and thirsty, feeding more and more
Insistently on Seymour's greed!---a lot!
Ronnette, Chiffon, and Crystal know the score:
	Leave evil deals with evil seeds undone;
	Seymour ought realize the weed has won!

The Son of Sonnet for Little Shop of Horrors

Most murders are a pretty sticky mess,
Unless, I guess, a homicidal plant
Surprises with consuming cleanliness
Honed on a hunger most significant!
No mercy will be shown, don't even try;
Its attitude's carnivorously rude!
Kiss all your simple greedy needs goodbye
And then prepare to be posthumous food!
No luck in being a professional, 
Dental or otherwise; the pod don't care!
One thing you'll take to your confessional:
Rememb'ring Audrey Two is everywhere!  
	Inanimate or otherwise, I'd flee
	Next time a talking plant spoke up to me!

The Revenge of Sonnet for Little Shop of Horrors

Our story thus far has relied upon 
Direct or indirect accounts of things
Gone thoroughly awry; Seymour has won
Respect, but only that which evil brings!
Insatiable though plants that move and talk
May be, it's still a bad idea to
Accept the promises a mobile stalk  
Can offer to get where it wants to go!
Effectively the pod gets what it needs
By lying through its pointy little teeth;
Oh, you can bet that every time it feeds,
You'll find its branches make a funeral wreath!
	End of the story, please remember this:
	Reject all promises of gardening bliss!

Sonnet for the Salem Witches

Consider well the wages of your sins;
Remember that the consequences last 
Unhindered by deceit, until begins
Confession to a power unsurpassed!
Insidious profession of abuse
Belies the innocence of guileless youth
Left to its own devices to accuse
Elusive apparitions of false truth!
One thing leads to another when pretense
Fells honesty with testimony's weight,
For there's no indisputable defense
Excels scorned lover's lies indelicate!
	A devilish compact made to save one's skin 
	Reflects what evil goodness hides within!

For Cast and Crew of "The Wizard of Oz"

Perchance (or not!) a wizard's measure is
Accorded by the wond'rous things he does;
Recall, though, all those thund'rous tricks of his
Afford no answers much beyond "Because!"
Returning home is surely just reward
Dear Dorothy deserves for being so
Unswerving facing Lion's challenge roared
And aiding Scarecrow's friendly yen to know,
As well her help restoring Tin Man's heart,   
Depending on the truth within her own! 
And thus must good play honestly its part,   
Let wickedness perforce be overthrown;
     The wizard but provided treasures they'd
     Already won, fullfilling promise made!

A Sonnet for Love Young and Old

Romantic tragedy may break the heart
Or soften flinty eye with melting tears,
May well unite, in parting, those apart,
Engaging them untie untimely fears
Of loss, of life undone, of love unknown,  
And most, of timeless youth in timely love
New parted, yet in parting sheathed and grown,
Denied but kissing palm within Death's glove.
Joy flies and wordplay multiplies afore
Until the willful point is sunk in all
Love's death may living amity restore
In hope that starry enmity shall fall
   Eloped, love's fortune still belies the cost
   That lovers pay when lost love's best loved lost.

Sonnet for That Other Daughter

Eternal dedication to her sire 
Leaves sweet Ismene thoroughly at sea
If she with rebel sister does conspire,
Zeus only knows her fated penalty.    
And should she favor Creon's full intent
By sure obeisance to his will decreed, 
Estrangement from Antigone seems meant  
To punish such abandonment in deed.  
Her fate may well be preordained from birth, 
And yet her will to freely choose persists.
Responsibility must prove its worth;
Love's duty must obey as law insists.
	On such decisions reputation rests
	When faced with life and love's eternal tests.

Sonnet for a Benighted King

Outwitting destiny's a hopeless task, 
Especially when one's fate is willed by gods
Despite the wager circumstance may ask, 
It's ill advised to bet against the odds.
Perhaps a man must bow beneath such force 
Unleashed before he drew first blameless breath
Still, it would seem a most inglorious course
To take against an ignominious death.
How can a man surmount such tarnished fate
Except that he accept what lies in store?
Kept to a road he cannot help create,
Infernal infrastructure planned before,
	No man escapes what fate intends for him;
	Gods know the chance of that is divine whim!

Sonnet for Ten Little Soldier Boys

A murder set to rhyme's a clever trick,
Nefariously preplanned wickedness! 
Define your prey with homicidal shtick,
Then craft poetic means to make a mess!
To slyly plot such mayhem murderous
Has need of cunning elegiac stunts;
Extracting punishment mortiferous
Requires what every bloody scribe confronts:
Each carefully calculated bit of bait,
Were any misconceived, might ruin all;
No mere coincidence ought fashion fate
Or let your prey escape what may befall!
	Notoriously, rhyming schemes of death
	Employ deft timing to their dying breath!

A Sonnet for Opening Minds

It's not the issue whether God exists
Nor reason's pyrrhic triumph over faith;
However long the argument persists, 
Epistemology's mere fleeting wraith!
Reality abides in natural law
It needs no miracle or sleight of hand!
The devil's in the detailed sense of awe  
Truth holds for those who work to understand     
How, what, and where, and when, and why? 
Evolved ex nihil or divinely writ, 
Would human purpose suffer to deny 
Its origins in universal wit? 
	No, life's conundrums cannot be resolved
	Decrying all the evidence involved!