Read Only Rhyme

A poem by Beverly Stock.

Read only rhyme, hand-picked for you

Rhyme is calming and it soothes

Yet, I’m holding tombs of fiction

My gaffe and contradiction.

Fiction is fib and invention

Dream and prevarication

I want versification

Balladry and intonation.

Poets sense a molient pulse

Use words with zeal and tremor

Writing with articulate wealth

Measured in feet and meter.

I am a novice, truth be told

Roused by sage women poets

Wheatley, Lydia Child, and Moore

And, Emily Dickinson lore.

“Over the River and Through the

Woods,” penned near 1800.

By Child, sung by tradition.

Women poets, my inspiration.