Long Poems

Long Poems What is it about long poems? Won’t people read any more? They certainly will not accept them for An anthology, and that is a bore! People write tiddley poems, A couple of lines or Haiku Expecting us all to say jolly good Followed by Ahs! and an Oooo! I read a review from a “liker” Of a poem that’s five stanzas long They give me five stars, comment on the length, And I feel I’ve done something wrong. Shakespeare put it succinctly, He knew how to make the words fit, He had Polonius in Hamlet exclaim “Brevity is the soul of wit!” This is true if you have something witty And really clever to say, But setting the scene and the context Is what, I think, makes the play. And don’t get me wrong I like Haiku I think short poems can be fun, But you really can say so much more, In long ones when all’s said and done!