POETRY ...

To The Good Man (Though Goodness Knows Why...!!)

My "activities" now are cards and poems ...
I hope I do them reasonably well ...

But, when I say, "poems" ...
The Good Man reacts ...

Badly ...

As tho' to Pavlovian bell

...

You see ...
He doesn't like poetry! ...

Oh no! My heart will break! ...

Poetry's one of the few things I do!
One of the very few things I make!

His dislike of poetry goes back
To his long-ago days in school ...

When learning poems was punishment ...

For inattention ...

Or playing the fool ...

So, whenever I say "Poem" ...

The Good Man groans aloud ...

But I don't care ...
I keep writin' em ...

" ...bloody...
But unbowed*"

...

(*From "Invictus" by William Ernest Henley)

Ffion