Pink Jade: A Summoned Fire

The poet likes to experiment with his own forms. This is a sonnet form he evolved, but to my knowledge he hasn't named yet. It was one of a series of poems he wrote during the disintegration of his second marriage to an abstraction, loosely based on his protege, Jade, but if you read the descriptions with knowledge of his life you find "Pink Jade" is actually an avatar of his wife, the Leopard, whose lost love he was already mourning.

Pink Jade: A Summoned Fire

claim for me your tattered soul
that leads your form to wander, soft,
on bare feet to the window's light
(to shroud your curves in barest light)
that I should send dark prayers aloft
to be with you, and play a role,
of conquered and the conqueror:
the paramour you can't forget,
who brought his heart without remorse
to walk your life like challenged course,
and share with you, without regret,
a passion damned forevermore.
allow me all that I desire
and I will share a summoned fire.


William F. DeVault. all rights reserved.

As a whole, a tapestry, these works are astounding, revealing a burning, yearning heart dying from neglect and abuse.

Individually, many of the works are amongst his best of the last decade or more.