365 Sonnets: Celebrating Each Day with a “Little Song”
by Paul Buchheit
365 Poems ~ Appendix ~ 381 pages
Price: $20.00
Publisher: Independently Published
ISBN #: 9798992339604
To Order: Amazon.com
ABOUT THE BOOK:
365 Sonnets celebrates each day of the year with a sonetto (Little Song) that relates in some significant way to the day’s observance of a holiday.
The sonnet is a formal poetic work of 14 rhymed and rhythmic lines, 140 syllables that tell a story in a musical way. The word ‘sonnet’ comes from the Italian sonetto, or “little song.”
All the poems in this volume adhere to the basic rules of the sonnet: 14 lines, iambic pentameter (one is iambic hexameter), and either a Shakespearean or Petrarchan rhyme scheme. However, the sonnets are Miltonian in rejecting strict quatrain/couplet and octave/sestet rules in favor of expressive freedom and continuity, much of it through the use of enjambment, which allows the uninterrupted flow of a sentence structure from one quatrain to another.
ADVANCE PRAISE:
Steeped in the experiences of man and nature, reflective of changing days that bring with them special challenges or thoughts, and inspirational in its succinct presentation, 365 Sonnets: Celebrating Each Day with a “Little Song” is more than a literary celebration. It serves as a panacea for depression, daily woes, and smaller picture thinking. Its approach and power are to be not just applauded but celebrated.
–Midwest Book Review
Each poem lifts off the pages with intensity and emotion. Readers will notice that Buchheit meticulously crafts each poem from start to finish. There is no rushing of words. Everything seems to be well thought out. Another thing that stands out is how some poems feel like one is reading works from Longfellow or Byron.
–The US Review
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Paul Buchheit is an author of books, poems, progressive essays, and scientific journal articles. His books include 365 Sonnets: Celebrating Each Day with a “Little Song,” self-published in May, 2025; Paradise Lost: A Poetic Journey, published in 2024 by Wipf and Stock Publishers; Sonnets of Love and Joy, published in August, 2023 by Kelsay Books (named Book of the Year by the Illinois State Poetry Society); 1871: Rivers on Fire (an historical novel: a 2024 Eric Hoffer Book Award Grand Prize Finalist); and Alice’s Adventures, published in 2022 by Kelsay Books. His website is https://booksbypaulb.com.
FROM THE BOOK:
January 6: Three Kings Day
Jacopo Bassano, Adoration of the Magi, c. 1555
Gifts from the Kings
by Paul Buchheit
The kings bestowed a lavish quantity
of gems and spices from exotic lands
on humble shepherds who had come to see
humanity reborn through infant hands.
The angels hurried down to celebrate,
to reap the bounty of the holy child,
assuring mankind that the name and fate
of progeny shall never be defiled.
And kings in coats of velvet finery
assured the reverential multitude
of gospel piety and pageantry,
of childlike dreams, delights, and plenitude.
If kings were now, they’d summon saints and seers
to ask why children’s eyes are washed in tears.
January 7: Not Going To Take It Day
Thomas Nast, Caricature of Boss Tweed and election fraud, 1871
Can’t Take the Candidate!
by Paul Buchheit
A pompous babbler oozes with a stream
of breathy poisons, damning desperate
and broken enemies with infinite
disdain and righteous words, his self-esteem
grotesquely bloated; praising potentates
as model leaders, segregationists
as worthy partners; using guns and fists
to cast elections to the bitter Fates.
And those who cling to shreds of dignity
(as calls for ‘freedom’ in the enterprise
of greed are planted in the nation’s soul)
allow this lord of stealth and vanity
to spurn the social contract, to despise
the synergies that make a people whole.
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