A REFUGE FOR POETS WHO WRITE IN THE LYRIC TRADITION,
WITH RHYME AND METER, WITH OR WITHOUT MUSIC
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DON’T WRITE LYRIC POETRY
“Don’t write lyric poetry,”
They say to you in school.
“That’s what poets used to do.
Today there are no rules.
Do not try to make it rhyme
Or keep a beat from line to line.
It’s difficult and takes much time.”
They treat you like a fool.
What passes now for poetry
Is really only prose,
Cut up into fragments,
Lined up all in rows,
Arranged in patterns on the page;
And how this came to be the rage
In this or any other age,
The good Lord only knows.
Only free form poetry
Is published any more.
Read it if you want to;
I find it such a bore.
I shall make my meaning clear,
In cadence pleasing to the ear,
Like poetry of yesteryear,
As it was done before.
Saranac Lake, New York, 1997
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