ACQUITTAL (for R. Shelton's poets)

My native tongue is poetry –
Though some might say mere verse.
My accent is iambic time –
That might get on your nerves.

Phonetically I like to rime –
Syllabically I count.
Inversion keeps me on my toes
When moving feet about.

Some say that rime is indirect –
Inversion is contrived –
The force of form is incorrect,
By sentiment derived –

A nineteenth-century accident –
Anachronistic curse.
I say that rime is precedent
Of bard tradition’s verse.

Inversion is a chance to stage,
A drama, screened by time,
And sentiment can be a sage
Who prompts a phrase sublime.

A meter is a lyric song –
A chant to memorize –
A count to help the words belong
To beats that mesmerize.

Some try to master language flow,
Abandoning old means.
By service to the figures, though,
New power intervenes.

(Pleasant Grove, Utah, 17 June 2008)

GAS-TROL'O-GY, n.

“A treatise on the stomach.” Webster 1844

Thanks be Deitum for Stomachs:

Umbilical Yummies –

Evasive teenage Holding Tanks –

Mid-life bread-dough Tummies –

My Sister’s torn Esophagus

Repaired by Surgery,

Resulting in a Miracle,

The Birth of Emily.

(7 June 2008, Provo, Utah)

WORDCRAFTER (For Arthur H. King)

First poems are for practice –

Next verses are for dreams –

Inspiration is the third

Of daily words in rhemes.

Mimesis is the frame –

Poiesis proffers schemes –

A “sermo humilis” approach

Enlightens pure-style themes.

The “music of endorsement” sings

Redeeming love’s refrain –

Revision makes the valleys hills

Remission makes rough places plain.

(6 June 2008, Provo, Utah)