Poesy To 'T' Rap
POESY TO (T)RAP
A poem for a competition is requested.
Who is the judge and what does s/he like?
Does political correctness circumscribe the contest?
Where shall the heart of upbeat poet strike?
Cancel that. The rhyming is old-fashioned.
Like speech the rhythm may not regulate.
And look out! Verses must not raise their
Symmetrical countenances
Lest the spirit of anarchy lose her boot straps
And struggle in the destitute tradition
Of great Milton, Longfellow or even Aussie Murray
Who could write an essay that reads like poetry,
So condensed are the thoughts into his vocab.
Oh dear! What craziness begins each line in capital
Consonant or vowel. I’m begging on my knees
To be forgiven for such outlandish tradition –
But I can’t help it.
Perhaps I’m just the juicy bug that eats the
Leaf of modern thought. I’ve yet to morph into
The rap of modern poesy. Forget that word!
But don’t you know computers now have stolen my
Authority. They think they know what I must write
And capitalise each brand new line against my
Deliberation with the lower case, in catastrophic singularity.
Oh!
I must importune my reader that the ‘oh dear’ line began my
Battle with computer misread of my desperate attempt to
Start a line in lower case and perhaps
Climb out of the chrysalis of poesy
And flutter the wings of rap.
And then complaints concern the excessive use
Of punctuation when they sight the quotes around
‘oh dear’.
Success at last! One line at least begins in lower case!
Perhaps, indeed, the chrysalis is snapped
And I can yet emerge a modern poet!
Copyright © Helen Murray | Year Posted 2019
|