Playing With Poetry

By Laurie B. Ballard

To rhyme or not to rhyme?

This is where you the writer own

Your individual freedom of creativity,

Choice of expressing thoughts, ideas, perceptions.

Focusing inward towards the heart of your soul.

Or outwards towards the nature of a tree, a fallen cone,

The ocean, a sand dollar…a mermaid.

An unscientific analogy of what life is.

Meanings we collectively search for.

Making sense out of nothing.

Building a structure of thought that

Endures each fleeting moment in time.

Bundling words into freeways of realization,

Coercing the expansion of the mind.

Reflecting possibilities, praying upon hope,

And radicalizing language to visualize anew.

As a poet, dogma no longer strangles via rules.

We create with pen to paper, our minimalist views.

Recycling and discarding words no longer relevant.

Scrapping paragraphs and sentences tired and worn out.

Weaving a renewed world smitten

With razzle-dazzle galore.

Designing distinct textures, imagery,

While verbs lie motionless,

In memories cloaked, expressions choked ,

Waiting to burst out in glory,

The nature of the story.

Finally, reading out loud with rhythmic conviction.

Melding the meter of verse to the beating of earth.

Marching emotions out of step to evoke tears of joy.

Defining time with periods and commas we misplaced yonder.

While each strike of the keyboard writes a score .

Conducting a symphony oozing,

In major and minor lore.