Poetry

Poetry!

That monster that seems to scare.
We fear it at school 'cos it baffles our brains
yet we loved it when we were small!

But, It’s only words written in a different way
that add extra meaning somehow.
But at school it’s destroyed -
Here, there’s no time to play
With words, with rhyme, with meter, with time.
No fun with puns, no gleanings and
No meanings self discovered.
Poetry becomes work:
a chore, a pain, a nightmare, a bind.

Please, forget all the rules for a moment and write
a song that tells a story, that fights
a battle, talks of love, makes wrong a right.
Describe a peanut,  a sherbet lemon -
The sound, smell, taste, the feel, the sight.
Just play with words:
alliterate, similise, neologise.
Break the rules and make up new ones.
Then, read your words out loud and
wonder at the power of poetry.

Sue Fewster - 2009