Lion's Tooth

For Dr. Cliff Garner

Taraxacum parachutes on the breeze,
Billowing against cerulean skies,
Landing, ivory white on verdant seas,
A cott’ny carpet dread by knowing eyes;
Exploding florets of golden yellow,
Stealing treasure out of the very earth,
Bursts of sun-burnt orange in fields left fallow
As Man battles Nature for worldly worth;
No more a child’s game; gone is delight
In old wives’ tales, and dent de lion myths
Of numbered days to come, love out of sight,
And the empty promise of granted wish.
I here do mourn the lost days of my youth,
And lawn and garden mauled by Lion’s Tooth.

What's in a Name?

Bud Koenemund is The Mad Sonneteer! He earned his unusual – though perfectly descriptive – sobriquet during the summer of 2003. While taking a summer session English course at SUNY Rockland Community College, he allowed his professor, the indomitable Dr. Cliff Garner, to read a few dozen of his poems – including several sonnets.

Garner returned the work with many helpful suggestions, and – because of Koenemund’s love of William Shakespeare’s work, his penchant for writing sonnets (as Shakespeare did), and the overarching theme of his work – dubbed Bud The Mad Sonneteer.

While Koenemund writes in several different forms and across many genre, he usually prefers the challenge of writing an English (or Shakespearean) sonnet.