Susie Muse's Uses

An accompaniment to "An Appealing Peel Appeal", where I just let my mind run free. The challenge I set myself was to see if I could use the same end-sound (with variants) throughout the entire length of a poem. Twenty-five years later, it still makes

SUSIE MUSE'S USES

A Muse is amused
When your thoughts come in two's

When couplets are used
And brain cells are bruised

She finds it amusing,
This Muse of my choosing

When, by syntax abusing,
My words come a-schmoozing

Amused is that Muse
When she can make me lose

My best Grammar shoes
(And thus, give me the blues!)

This same Muse, though, is who's
Helped me to my words choose

As, from the deepest ooze,
She arrives! She rescues!

So, sop not that booze,
And to your Muse, pay dem dues!

A fickle mistress, she, it's true
But when your thoughts are like Kudzu

(Woody, tangled, greenish-blue),
THEN should thee thy Musie woo!

I've never queried if my Musie
Was a trollop or a floozie;

She, unlike they, is choosy�
And I'll bet her name is Susie!

So, Susie-Musie, Here's to you-sy!
I'll quaff your wine until I'm woozy,

And ask all my fellow Poets, "Who's
Here fit to my Muse amuse?"

Not a pen rises; thus I'm "choosed"
To keep my choosy Muse amused!

And ever I'll her gifts be using
(As long as She finds that amusing!)

If Susie wishes to imbue
Me with the urge my nails to chew,

As long as I her hints accrue,
I'll not her motives "Museconstrue"!

And I'll anon, my Musie woo,
And hope, to come she'll continue!

Mark Teague
c. 8-24-84, rev. 1985

Reviews

[Mason Vail]

That's a hoot! I love it!

(How's that for a supremely uninspiring, unconstructive review? On a related note, if anyone notices MY muse running around, could you send it back my way? *grumble* *mutter* *curse*)

[Ellen Hammond]

Well, this a muse is really amused. lol Funny how we can make up our own rhyming words as we let our minds run free from the boundaries of spelling and grammar. But it is a great way to open your mind to let the creative juices flow. Thanks for the much needed laugh, my friend. I enjoyed it immensely.

[JohnL]

This is a fascinating exercise/challenge. From the point of view of which it is successful but as poetry to amuse the reader, forgive me if I suggest that rather than seem like a mind running free, it did in its later stages seem rather contrived and as if you were having to work too hard. To make a poem for the reader's benefit, I'd have kept it to about a third of the length and gone for better rhyme, rhythm and wit. Nevertheless, it was quite anachievement within the terms of reference you stated.
John