Extra Illicit Sonnets

By George Clarke

Extra Illicit Sonnets chronicles a love affair between a man and a woman of different complexions, cultures, continents, and generations, Sonia Fuentes of Andorra and Luca Xifona of Canada. She is Spanish in heritage; and he is Maltese. She is a Boomer and he is of Generation Y-Not. The poetry consists mainly of unrhymed – or blank – sonnets. It is transcendent and dangerous verse because it addresses humanity's most complex and volatile passion.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Exile Editions
• Release date: Mar 25, 2016
• ISBN: 9781550964998

Book preview

Formatting note:

In the electronic versions of this book

blank pages that appear in the paperback

have been removed.

Extra

ILLICIT

SONNETS

GEORGE ELLIOTT CLARKE

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Clarke, George Elliott, 1960-, author

Extra illicit sonnets / George Elliott Clarke.

Poems.

Issued in print and electronic formats.

ISBN 978-1-55096-498-1 (paperback).--ISBN 978-1-55096-499-8 (epub).--

ISBN 978-1-55096-500-1 (mobi).--ISBN 978-1-55096-501-8 (pdf)

I. Title.

PS8555.L3748E97 2015 C811'.54 C2015-906554-2 / C2015-906555-0

Copyright © George Elliott Clarke, 2015

Cover drawing and interior drawings © Claire Weissman Wilks; used by permission of the artist.

Published by Exile Editions Ltd ~ www.ExileEditions.com

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PDF, ePUB and MOBI versions by Melissa Campos Mendivil

Publication Copyright © Exile Editions, 2015. All rights reserved

We gratefully acknowledge, for their support toward our publishing activities, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund, the Ontario Arts Council, and the Ontario Media Development Corporation.

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À Colette

À Pushkin

Contents

I Poetry

Performance

Honest Sonnet

Late, Late Renaissance

Composition

II Tiding

Spontaneous Insight

Early March, Rodos

Interpreting Luca Xifona

Tarnish

III Initiation

Rapacious

Andorran Seduction

Stanzas Written in Reflection

To Luca

@ Paris

Amsterdam

Amsterdamned

To Luca (II)

IV Genealogy of Morals

To Sonia

Struggle

Venetian Ceiling

Death of a Ladies’ Man

V Just Like Starting Over

Of Marriage

Marrying

To Luca (III)

Imperative!

Sermonic

For My Companion

To Luca (IV)

In Our Garden

VI Beatitudes

Of Sonia

Delirium

Singular Visionary

Valentine

VII Odysseys

I—Berlin

II—Berlin

I—Rome

I—Morocco

II—Morocco

I—Malta

II—Malta

III—Malta

I—Puumala