When My Muse Speaks

I Love Rock and Roll

I Love Rock and Roll

I like my poems short and neat
reading or writing I prefer to be brief.
Some go on and on without relief
meter goes long, nod off to the beat.
Gilgamesh, the Illiad, Canterbury Tales,
to read them in full you'll hear my wails.

"put another dime in the juke box baby"

"condense, condense, condense"
aren't those the words of Whitman,
so what's up with Leaves of Grass?
That goes on forever, . . . Amen.
But if I could write like that . . .
I'd fill the page with dynamite
and stop rhyming rat-a-tat-tat.

"put another dime in the juke box baby"

In writing this lyric, I've broken my rule,
my words keep rambling on and on.
Hope you're awake to the end of my song
But to my seeking brain I add a new tool.
And though the haiku I will not abort,
I vow to be open to both long and short.

"put another dime in the juke box baby" *
                              ~~~ Judi Van Gorder

Notes: ▶︎

22 Lines
*from Joan Jett's I love Rock and Roll

Sent to "Poetry Newsletter (March 4, 2020)" 

Verse Form: The Bop