a poem in my pocket

Chevréfeuille at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai prompts a “distillation” of a sonnet…

Sonnet 98  (by the master)

From you have I been absent in the spring,
When proud-pied April, dressed in all his trim,
Hath put a spirit of youth in everything,
That heavy Saturn laughed and leaped with him.
Yet nor the lays of birds, nor the sweet smell
Of different flowers in odour and in hue,
Could make me any summer’s story tell,
Or from their proud lap pluck them where they grew:
Nor did I wonder at the lily’s white,
Nor praise the deep vermilion in the rose;
They were but sweet, but figures of delight
Drawn after you, – you pattern of all those.
Yet seem’d it winter still, and, you away,
As with your shadow I with these did play.

© William Shakespeare

my distillation in tanka form:

in beauty, scent, hue

all the flowers, roses too

cannot surpass you

winter’s lonely heart would thrill

if return to spring we will

© lynn__