Sonnets for the Astronomical Clock
A Novel in Verse

About this book:

In the shadow of Prague's spires, a clockmaker bends over vellum and forge, coaxing the heavens into brass and iron. *Sonnets for the Astronomical Clock* unfolds in flawless sonnets that tick with the rhythm of the workshop—hammer on anvil, file on gear, the Vltava's frozen breath against the window. Here is the birth of the Orloj, the great medieval marvel that maps the zodiac, tracks the moon's dark face, and calls the apostles to their hourly parade, all forged by a man who measures eternity in heartbeats and gear-teeth.

History and poetry mesh like the clock's own wheels: Ptolemy's charts and Tycho's numbers guide a calloused hand; guild masters doubt while apprentices learn patience in brass dust; winter mist creeps through cracks as the machine grows, tooth by calculated tooth. Each sonnet is a component—precise, luminous, necessary—building not just a timepiece but a meditation on what endures when the maker becomes dust. The celestial and the mortal turn in perfect step.

Read this book the way the clock reads the sky: slowly, reverently, with wonder at the mechanism. You will hear the "cricket's song" of the file, feel the "heavy hand that shapes" red-hot iron, and stand beside the clockmaker as he folds his blueprint "with a quiet prayer." A masterpiece of verse that makes engineering sing, *Sonnets for the Astronomical Clock* is a treasure for anyone who has ever watched gears turn and felt the universe click into place.