When There Were Ghosts

“The Border: A Double Sonnet” by Alberto Ríos (2015)

A double sonnet is two adjacent sonnets that mirror one another, totaling 28 lines (a single sonnet being 14 lines). Ríos’s poem in this form also explores the themes of Living in Borderlands and Blended Identity.

Rather than use the image of a smoke-filled movie theater, as in “When There Were Ghosts,” Ríos uses a list of many different things—like the line in bifocal glasses, men competing for the love of a woman, and a blood clot—in his double sonnet to describe the border. “Line” is repeated in the first and last lines of the poem (Line 1 and Line 28), demonstrating the mirroring effect of the form.

“My God, It’s Full of Stars” by Tracy K. Smith (2011)

This poem by former United States Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith uses the cinema to describe eras of history as well as the condition of the US throughout time. Movies such as Planet of the Apes and The Ten Commandments are alluded to, while works such as 2001: A Space Odyssey (which provides the title of the poem) are more directly referenced.

“My God, It’s Full of Stars” is also strongly hauntological, with the science fiction works of the past describing a future that never arrived.