I Do Not Heed My Friends Advice Poem by Francis Duggan

Since I first started writing verse back in late nineteen seventy three
I've written many pieces over six thousand five hundred maybe
Of people and of Nature and of the wild and free
But my rhymes are just not good enough or so 'twould seem to me.

All my efforts must be doggerel or so 'twould seem that way
And I'd be long dead of starvation if I had to write for pay
The critics just ignore me 'twould seem beneath their dignity
To even have to mention the name of one like me.

I do not heed my friends advice to give writing rhyme away
They tell me I repeat myself I've said all I have to say
And that rhyme is as dead as the dodo is and that rhymers nowadays don't know fame
And why am I persisting in a 'hungry belly game'?

I feel that penning verse in some ways is like an addictive drug
And though your hobby may seem harmless you are looked on as a mug
If you only write for love of writing you are looked on as a fool
In the society we live in it's the power of money rule.

I know I might find better things to do with my spare time
Than thinking about doggerel and penning slip shod rhyme
But suppose I could be doing worse and though my rhymes with me will die
At least others cannot say of me he did not even try.

I do not heed my friends advice when they say 'call it a day'
For you'd be long dead of starvation if you were writing for pay
And why I keep on writing God alone only knows
To doggerel and rhyming I'm addicted I suppose.