Dusty Books Poem by Dave Dunn

I'm a poet
Not a mechanic
If the rhyme breaks down
Should I panic?

For each syllable stretch
And stumbling scan
Do I search for another
Or act like a man

Must the purpose I scribe
Be for passing a test
Or maybe some mention
Of a tale with some zest

I think the audience tell
If they like it or not
And may offer a silence
If I've lost the plot

But if it's a soliloquy
I may want to complete
I may not come to notice
If the crowds on their feet

Or the readers who post
Their comments to me on the net
Could stop being upbeat
Might write things that upset

Though I've written some decades
At last count it was five
Will the world ever notice
If I fail to survive

The onslaught of grammar
And punctuation rebuffs
Shall I fall to the floor
From observations so tough

No I've come to conclude
That while with good intent
Those that pick nits out
Consider their time well spent

But the ones that I please most
Are those that see through
To the art of the poet
When in love or so blue

I could pen some more parodies
Write them just for a laugh
Or play with fickle inspiration
And follow its quite rambling path

Oh yes that I will do
For it's the way that I work
To change after all this time
Would make me a real berk

So swallow the rule books
I'll eschew that myself
My readers want to be stirred
Not dust books on a shelf......

(c) Rhumour
July 27th 2009