While digging through boxes in storage looking for Christmas lights I came across one of my most valued treasures. It is a poem I wrote in 1985 as a 17-year-old senior in High School.
I remember my creative writing teacher giving my class the assignment of writing an original poem. Her assignment was met with a question by one of my classmates…”Does it have to rhyme?” To which she replied, “No, you can write a rhymeless poem.”
That was enough of a creative spark to inspire me to write what I affectionately called THE LAST RHYMELESS POEM. The next week it was published in the school newspaper now to reemerge 27 years later for the world to see… (By the way, it works best if you imagine yourself rapping with an attitude, which I certainly had as a 17-year-old!)
You’d better hide, you’d better run ‘Cause I wrote this poem just for kicks.
Roses are red, violets are blue This poem won’t rhyme no matter what I attempt.
My thoughts are down, the words are in place. They are written very neatly not taking much room.
No matter what I write, no matter what I say It just won’t rhyme, there’s just no method.
Try, try, try…and try, try, again Whatever I try, I can’t seem to succeed.
Day and night I dream and think Of words for this poem that do not smell.
The poems I write never seem to rhyme Maybe in the future I’ll spend more hours.
Yes, rhymeless poems have been written before But after this one there won’t be many others.