Spring Sonnets

SPRING SONNETS is a collection of 90 sonnets selected from a group of 180 written by Don Yorty during the course of six years, from spring 2003 to spring 2009. Yorty takes this traditional poetic form and skillfully uses it as a container for contemporary writing. With wit, honesty, a sharp eye and a touch of sass, Yorty reflects on myriad topics: urban life (specifically in New York City); the natural world; love, sex, and marriage; family and friendship; aging and mortality; language, teaching, and poetry itself. These poems invite the reader into community with a careful and caring observer of day-to-day simplicities that resonate on a larger scale.

Don Yorty is a poet, educator, and garden activist living in New York City. He is the author of two previous poetry collections, A Few Swimmers Appear and Poet Laundromat (both from Philadelphia Eye & Ear), and he is included in Out of This World, An Anthology of the Poetry of the St. Mark's Poetry Project, 1966-1991. His novel What Night Forgets was published by Herodias Press in 2000. He blogs at donyorty.com: an archive of current art, his own writing, and work of other poets.