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To Speak Unique

From youth we have been urged to stay unique.
For boxed-in meetings, we must always be
The ones outside the box, must always speak
On obscure points. The price of novelty?
Discussing common issues we all face,
Only to hear the boos, the jeers, the sneers
Of people told too often to debase
Conventional beliefs, stigmatic fears,
Which by recurring, seem mere platitude.
But who will learn and who will take the cue?
If only innovation is pursued,
Righting past troubles might be overdue.
Exhausting fresh objectives after all,
To cycle back to old points we recall.

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Caroline Chen is a 14-year-old writer from Irvine, California. She is a winner of the national Maria W. Faust Sonnet Contest. Her fiction will soon be published by Vine Leaf Press. 

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4 Responses

  1. Joseph S. Salemi

    This is a commendable sonnet from someone so young. There might be a little vagueness in the argument, but the meter is perfectly fine.

    Evan’s choice of the picture of the Little Swedish Meatball was inspired. There’s a girl who pretends to be unique and outstanding, but who is simply a mouthpiece for globalist platitudes about the environment.

    Reply
  3. Paul A. Freeman

    I like your style, Caroline.

    The poem can be read a number of ways on a number of current and past issues.

    Winston Churchill was a unique orator, much jeered and ridiculed during the early days of WW2, and still gets a bad rap in some quarters.

    I found the line ‘Righting past troubles might be overdue’, very poignant.

    May I suggest you think about using ‘recurrence’ instead of ‘recurring’? Somehow it sounded better to my ear – but then, that’s just me.

    Excellent sonnet, thanks for the read.

    Reply
    • Paul A. Freeman

      And congratulations on your second spot, Caroline.

      I look forward to reading more of your work .

      Reply

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