The world has lost the ear for rhyme. <br />It still makes children squirm with pleasure; <br />and from some witty pens and minds, its fireworks fizz; <br />so, after all these centuries of rhyme <br />and all the games of meter, dancing words, <br />should we now mourn its passing? <br />Have we lost the music of another world? <br /> <br />Instead, the easy unpretentious discourse, <br />sober, light, familiar, honest - <br />the world of daily, homely, shared sharp life, <br />that's now preferred. Not prose; <br />much more than 'chopped-up prose' as those may say <br />who think that poetry should be more visibly hard-earned; <br />- as if a human life set down in honesty <br />were not a poem in itself, unwrit; <br />'prose with enhanced consciousness' it's often now defined; <br />and consciousness - now that's earned, if you like... <br /> <br />and simile, and imagery, and metaphor - all the repertoire <br />of glorious poetry - they're all still here <br />to work their magic; if more played down, now, <br />unostentatious as T-shirt and jeans; <br />unostentatious as the beating, bloody heart. <br /> <br />And yet, when years bring tears <br />and time brings death and dying, <br />it's time for rhyme, to heal the heart <br />and charm away the crying.<br /><br />Michael Shepherd<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/0004-the-world-has-lost-the-ear-for-rhyme/
