Fundamental Stuff
Endangered species — sonnet, villanelle
And triolet — are crushed out now by verse
That’s “free,” where form and rhyme have gone to hell.
If only this stuff tended to be terse . . .
But, no, it dribbles, diarrhea on
The pages of the groupie magazines
That used to publish poetry. Foregone
Are rhyme and rhythm and the vistas, scenes
Of Lakeland tarns — unless these sights are blotched
With asphalt parking. Until tenements
With broken doorways and with addicts splotched . . . . .
Then journals print . . . just grubby sentiments.
“We’d rather have a wasteland with a turd
Than blue eyes shining through a Shakespeare word.”
~ Phillip Whidden
by phillipw | Feb 17, 2025 | FR, MO, TR |