.
Rhyme Subprime
I tend to rant against slant;
maybe it’s something I can’t
__embrace with affection
__or write to perfection
but I don’t mean sharing a thought
in a sensitive way that’s not fraught,
__using careful selection
__without misdirection
so meanings will clearly come through
in the way that I wanted them to,
__with proper inflection,
__enhancing connection
with those of an alternate view,
whether many or only a few,
__to share my reflection
__and find intersection
of hearts and of minds which one finds
in a world where each variance grinds
__our hopes with objection
__and undue rejection
yet also finds means to unite,
since the right words can help expedite
__our faint predilection
__for deep introspection—
but that isn’t what I first meant
when I started this presentiment.
__So here’s a correction,
__a slight redirection:
by slant, I meant rhyme that’s not true
(but, presuming you knew, gave no clue).
.
.
Ken Gosse was raised in the suburbs of Chicago. Now retired, he lives in Mesa, AZ. First published in First Literary Review–East in November 2016, since then in the Society of Classical Poets, Lothlorien Poetry Journal, The Writers Club, Pure Slush, Home Planet News Online, and others.
A very enjoyable poem. Ken — and nary a slant rhyme in sight!
I’ll throw some in now and then, usually emphasizing why I’d prefer not to, as Bartleby would say.
Very well done, Ken!
Thank you, Cheryl. That’s who I am, so that’s how I write. Fortunately, others aren’t me, otherwise poetry would all sound alike.
Catullus V: here are some near rhymes for you.
Come live with me, my sweet, and be my love,
Weighing all the old men’s stern reproaches
For what they really are – and that’s nothing.
The sun sets, and yet, once more approaches
Each day. For us, when the light dies: we’re done.
The night in which we sleep is eternal.
So, give me a thousand kisses, and then a hundred,
And then a thousand more: the total so infernal
That none may keep count or know what to think –
And so perhaps safe from that jaundiced wink.
Slant done well, whether in the gentle telling of truth or in the nearness of rhyme, is poetry that reads well and sounds well.
Slant rhymes are deficient in wit —
Why write when your ends do not fit?
Blank verse is an option
That’s up for adoption
If rhyme is not part of your kit.
But Wait … There’s Less!
An editor once told me that they wanted to publish my blank verse. Perhaps I shouldn’t have explained that what he liked most from my submission was the result of accidentally inserting a double page-break.
The Key to Life and Being Published
I’ll have
a double
(break)
on
the
house
Ken, Oh those slant rhymes! I love this poetic take with a serious point to make! Very well done indeed… I’m grinning.
Thank you, Susan. Grins have the power to soothe a ravaged rhyme.
By slant, I mean rhyme that’s imperfect,
Rare truth, though not served up in surfeit.
Enjoyed the poem, Ken, and tried to leave a comment in imperfect rhyme, but AI checkers must not have liked it. What kind of wizardry is here!
Thank you, Margaret. When I intend to write imperfect rhyme, I often find I get hung up on perfect rhymes instead. Sometimes I can, usually I can’t. That doesn’t make me better or worse—it just makes me me and tends to keep me that way, for better and/or worse.