Mobile Poetry from Poets.org, Plus Not Just Any Sonnet

If you want poetry on the go (and who doesn't?), click here for the Academy of American Poets mobile poetry service. It's the best thing you can do on your BlackBerry or iPhone on any given day!

Here's a compact poem: a sonnet, courtesy of Sonnet Central. It's a Canadian sonnet. (I couldn't make this up if I tried.) (Would you have preferred Sonnets of a Chorus Girl?)

With no further ado, I give you the Canadian Mary Morgan:


Good Deeds
(Founded on a Persian Legend)

The child asks, "Is it true?" The story's old,
Of a brave youth who all on good intent
Alone about the world unwearied went
For love of human kind, nor sought for gold.
His face was beautiful with thought; his hold
Of life but frail--as if he had been meant
For gentle ways, and could not have been sent
To battle with a world that bought and sold.
A wistful far-off look grew in his eyes
As if they said to all, "Good-night, farewell!"
Farewell it was. In groves of paradise
A radiant maiden meets him. "Who art thou?"
He asks. "For none so fair on earth did dwell."
"I am thy deeds," she says, "that greet thee now!"

by Mary Morgan