How To

(a bad sonnet)

When I say this is a bad sonnet, I mean deliberately so. It is nothing but a string of clichés, a list of positive thinking boosterisms and stale new-age empowerment bullet points. There’s not a metaphor or an original thought in it, and the verse itself is doggerel. So why write it at all? Because these ideas when mixed, like chlorine bleach and toilet cleaner, release a toxic gas.

And they work, on their own terms. They do foster achievement, if you accept the implicit goals they define. But what else do they foster? So I put all these things together in one pernicious sonnet.

 	How To

Here is how to be a great success:
Overcome your fear of pushing through— 
When something balks you, that’s the time to press
Towards your goal; you’re doing this for you.
Obstacles are there to make you strong.
Become the winner you were meant to be.
Erase that loser tag you’ve borne too long
And join the winner’s circle of the free.
Remember, you’re entitled to succeed
And have whatever things you most desire.
Persist despite what others seem to need, 
Insist upon the outcome you require. 
Swagger is the mindset of the win. 
That is just the world we’re living in.

Just how pernicious do I think these ideas are? Well, did you notice that the sonnet is also an acrostic?