A canzone is a lot like a sonnet, but there aren’t quite as many rules, so you can mess about with the length and the rhyme scheme.
Canzone is Italian for song. This is a song in honour of the international day against homophobia and transphobia.
I’d like to sing a song for those unsung
The ones who do not march in the parade,
The hidden people, lonely and afraid
I’ll sing for those who dare not sing aloud.
The girl who’s known since she was very young
That she was not a boy, but dared not say
And looks at her reflection every day
And tells herself that one day she’ll be proud.
The frail old man whose soul is daily wrung
By terror that his nurses might uncover
The faded, yellow pictures of his lover
And knows that he would never be so cowed.
The teenage riot girl, whose pierced tongue
And steelcapped boots disguise a trembling heart
Each day at school she fears being torn apart
And so she stands aloof, avoids the crowd.
I’d like to sing a song for those who fear.
I’d like the ones who frighten them to hear.
Tom Juniper Poetry 