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Premonition

The sun shines down in undimmed majesty
Across the heavens’ undiminished breadth
On life unsapped, unweighted levity
Of loves and laughs untinged with sight of death—

Except for mine. An unseen shadow thrown
As night across the day strikes untold fear
In me of doom unnamable yet known,
Unseen but felt, and menacingly near.

Untouched by prophecy, my ears hear naught;
But, undeceived, my eyes behold the shade
Of unimagined cataclysm wrought
Upon the heedless world that plays unswayed.

I call to it. Unmoved, it turns away
And laughs, unconscious of the coming day.

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Adam Sedia (b. 1984) lives in his native Northwest Indiana and practices law as a civil and appellate litigator. He has published four books of poetry and his poems, essays, and fiction have appeared in various literary journals. He is also a composer, and his musical works may be heard on his YouTube channel.

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7 Responses

  1. Roy Eugene Peterson

    What a great poem about having a premonition. I had many in the military and it saved me and my men on more than one occasion.

    Reply
  2. James Sale

    A wonderfully evocative poem, particular in its appropriate use of diction: all the words beginning ‘un-‘, underscoring a negative that doesn’t exist but yet which threatens to come into existence: minatory indeed.

    Reply
  3. Paul A. Freeman

    Very evocative. I can’t recall any premonitions, but coincidences have left me with the same shaken feelings you express here, Adam.

    Thanks for the read.

    Reply
  4. Joseph S. Salemi

    The insistent use of the un- prefix is the primary rhetorical mechanism in this sonnet. They all fix together perfectly, like the small gears in a watch.

    Sedia saves the volta for line 13, where all of a sudden the speaker comes directly into focus. The clipped “I call to it” makes the premonition very stark, because it is now personified as an “it” that turns away, laughs, and is unconscious. This is a direct confrontation of the speaker with Death Itself.

    Reply
  5. Cynthia Erlandson

    The stark contrast you portray between the first quatrain — with its “unweighted levity” — and what follows, is striking, setting the mood and the suspense needed for a poem entitled “Premonition”. And the way you personify the premonition at the end gives chills.

    Reply

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