Tower of Ivory - "Everyone's a Poet"

Everyone's a Poet
by
Justine Schmiesing

Illustration by Julie Snyder
Click on the image to see the enlarged picture.

Your rhymes are too rhymey
(He snarled in disgust.)
Take them outside
If write them you must.
Your meter’s too measured,
Style’s always the same,
Alliteration allures you
To play its dumb game.
You’re like all the others
Who think they are poets:
The soul is the thing –
But you do not know it!
You get hung up in structure,
So this poem will fail,
And if I had my druthers
I’d finish it in blank verse.

The End

Justine Schmiesing lives happily in Steubenville, Ohio with her husband and four children. (And we here at TOI are thankful to Dr. Holmes who pointed Justine towards our humble publication!)