! ! Not Averse To Poetry.. Poem by Michael Shepherd

Do you see life
through prose-coloured spectacles?

or has the squid of poetry
inked you into its tentacles?

There’s much more rubbish writ in prose –
though soppy verse
can be much worse;

or tepid epics
with vapid topics;

or stanzas dull
and fanciful;

or limericks
with silly tricks; or

couplets mock-heroic,
like empty crocks echoic;

lines that would be better for
their not being stuffed with metaphor;

unkempt attempts at simile
that register but dimmily;

and ‘moanalogues’ from broken hearts;
sad mishap crap; linguistic farts;
slam-dunk bawls, that mean **** all;

rhymes that over backwards bend
to cap a couplet at their end;

elegies, whose energies
not rapt, but sapped; and seldom apt;

dust-dry stuff that vaunts ‘tradition’;
limp Latinate, like micturition;

or classic odes
with massive loads
of sheer incomprehension..

My final word, in fine old words:
say what you mean… why be absurd?