POEM - FREEDOM FROM RESTRAINTS

FREEDOM FROM RESTRAINTS

I thought to wander through the glades of poesy,
With my hound 'Must-rhyme' straining at the leash
And pulling me away from pool to tree
He us settled in his favourite niche.


'But who the master is?' I ask this dog,
'I sought to have my muse inspired by pool'.
He growled impatience and rubbed himself against a log,
'Pool rhymes not with poesy you fool.’


So now a tree must be the subject of my verse?
'Blame not me' growled he as idly he scratched a flea,
'Of words to choose for rhyme then poesy must be the worse
A principle I had to stretch e’en to allow a tree'.
(And 'worst' instead of 'worse' the thought occurred to me).


Then through the grass came bounding up another slavering hound,
Snapping at my syllables and growling in complaint.
This beast had slipped his rope and then our scent had found
'Twas 'Must-scan' and his anger almost made me faint.


'You start with pent and then you move to hept
You find the rhymes but then ignore the stresses
And as for rhythm, your work is so inept
That where now you go anyone’s guess is.’

These damned dogs that dogged me

Were fit to render me free of any words
Speechless I was and of any written word was free
So climbed I the tree and sat there with the birds.


The curs I cursed,
And putting my muse first
I pointed to’ards a distant hare
And ordered, ‘Go and get him, over there!


And off they ran, true to their canine lust
Leaving their leads and names behind
To do what savage dogs always must
To let me rhyme or scan or not at all and to write whatever comes to mind.