Border Crossing

Border Crossing

 

 

 

I stopped considering

the choice of free verse

cost me many readers

who wanted normalcy

 

my pen never knew what that is

I siphoned metaphor

through a tight straw

that blew apart

when the words got crowded

 

alone in that room of many poets

I searched their eyes

and found irises not blooming

but judging with disgust

 

Why can't you be like everyone else

who writes rhyme in time 

five beats per line

show us short long short long short long

 

and we will crop our attitude

and let you in

 

it's a free country

but not a free verse

 

iambic pentameter

keeps us in line

 

and you, dear poet

are way out of line

reign yourself into terse verse

 

or you will stand out in the rain

counting syllables 

like the drops hitting your head

with askew inspiration.

 

 

erin-cilberto

3/1/24

Reviews

[John the Baptist]

Ah, how the times have changed. Now we rhymers huddle in the darkness, submitting to the few journals that still cater to us. I blame it all on Ezra Pound.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

Poor Ezra...he gets blamed for a lot...
All the Beats started straying and the purists went nuts.
Your rhyme is subtle and works very well, my friend.
j.

[Fabian G. Franklin]

This is great. I call it spoken word poetry because it's a message that resonates with the reader in prose. It's also a persuasive piece of poetry leading the reader to empathize with the author's opinions and observations. All the great poets I've ever read have at least one poem in rhyme or half-rhyme in their oeuvre but often just as many that do not rhyme. D.H. Lawrence was one of my favorite poets and his poems sometimes rhyme, sometimes they're prose...he called the short poems "pansies" and had a book by that name. The introduction is stellar. But I digress into chasing the March Hare. Twain said, "Write what you know". I say, write whatever you want, however you want...that's the freedom. :)

[jacob erin-cilberto]

I agree, whatever you want, however you want.
thank you,
j.

[Patricia Wedel]

Reminds me of an Open Border that proved to be a Disaster. The Wild West did not have the Problem of Population to provide Food and Shelter. It seems are Leaders are Mindless of where our Taxes should be spent We are Broken and have not Woken… living on Fantasies. gently, Pat

[jacob erin-cilberto]

Thank you, Pat...appreciate you.
j.

[Poetic Beauty]

I can feel this poem completely. The words struck a cord with me deeply; for I rarely have a smooth meter or and exact tempo to my poems even when they do rhyme. I do many poems in free verse for it allows more freedom with the words and images I choose to paint with my ideas.

I say be the rebel and write as free as free can be

[jacob erin-cilberto]

freedom is good..thank you, P.B. for your words.
j.