This is a poem without rhyme, totally devoid of any attempt to perpetrate the lyrical crime that so incites contemporary art's contempt. Why waste all that precious time trudging through my dictionary in search of words that rhyme to dress my message in finery? Why waste time honing the skill of expressing feelings artfully when such things only serve to kill the raw spirit of spontaneity? Why dam up the stream of thought by building walls that only free tiny trickles of verse that ought to burst forth into a formless sea? Why, indeed? Quickly, they contend, one loses sight of the message originally intended. When rhyme determines what you may write, inevitably the meaning is amended. Why, regular rhythms and rigid rhymes and strict syllabic structures are the tools to commit linguistic crimes! They are no more than crutches. Yet I still can't resist writing rhyming reams littered with alliterations. I derive immense pleasure, it seems, in such linguistic elaborations. |