Theme: Rhyme and Reason

 Why rhyme ? An interesting question – it's not just a matter of a discipline and a dimension of the language that is part of the craft. It adds dance, music, memorability. But, of course, in our times of free verse and so much choice about form in poetry, it is a step that may or may not be taken. I always find it challenging.

Rhymes get in the way unless they are effortless – which often takes a deal of craft !

They can truly make or break a poem. As the poet works, rhymes often suggest,

develop or alter meaning. It's an interactive process that can take one along

unexpected paths, the stochastic injected into the search for meaning.

Here's a poem where I used rhyme to explore the theme of Time:

The Sounds of Time

 

Time behind me clattering

Overtakes me spattering

The mud of being pattering

The pebbles flying battering

My dreams are left in tatters

The past behind me matters

The empty echo clatters

The mud of being batters

And when Time's hurried past

And silence holds me fast

I'll know the die is cast

The realm of death is vast

Try writing to these rhymes: link/blink swim/whim/rim slide/ride/denied/deride...

A rhyming poem, well done, also links to the God theme I am currently exploring in my own work -

Proof

In the beginning was the word,

Though uttered often, seldom heard,

God spoke of peace or paroxysm,

Exacting faith though cataclysm,

Handed down judgment, stern or ruth

And posited eternal truth

But prideful man's profane persistence

Demanded proof of God's existence.

The word might just be thaumaturgy

Invoked by a corrupted clergy.

How could the mind accept, believe Him

Until all mankind could perceive Him,

A corporeal form, intact

And measurable as test-tube fact?

But God with mercy, full of grace

Spared man the terror of his face.

Ralph de Toledano