A hard writing I had of it; <br />the words clumsy, the sense banal... <br /> <br />escaping from rhyme isn't easy; <br />half a lifetime to work up to it <br />then like skirt length, that's it, <br />the line's short this season, <br />and rhyme is, so, like, so last year... <br /> <br />(and must be insincere <br />if you have to work at it <br />or even want to) <br /> <br />so there I was in the <br />midst of getting the <br />hang of cutting the line at the <br />best place for the <br />sense, to avoid the <br />artificial on the <br />one hand and the <br />banal on the <br />other -the <br />art that conceals the <br />art - <br /> <br />and scenting euphony, when suddenly - <br />a crash - and in there lumbered - 'woodenly'... <br /> <br />I twigged instantly that it wouldn't <br />go without a struggle; <br />and called in Suddenly for questioning - <br />had they some sort of pact in the recesses of my mind - <br />kissin' cousins, blood brothers, partners in rhyme? <br /> <br />Suddenly denied this vigorously - <br />never been asked such a question before, <br />wouldn't want to associate etc.; <br />a word only used by theatre critics... <br /> <br />So I sighed and threw out my neatly chopped prose, <br />spontaneity, jokes, and anything goes; <br />and returned to meaningful old-fashioned verse <br />so woodenly crafted - well, poets have done worse.<br /><br />Michael Shepherd<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/0338-just-couldn-t-hack-it/
