Met a Poem About Poems

Day 28 GloPoWriMo 2019

. . . the concept of meta-poems – which are poems about poems!
And now for our daily prompt. As you may have guessed, today I’d like to challenge you to try your hand at a meta-poem of your own.

So, what are poems —?
To me, things that rhyme,
And have to do it simply all the time,
And in a sort of rhythm need to go
With nothing there to interrupt the flow;

Think of, ‘I come from home of coot and grouse,
And then make a rush
To sparkle out among the fern,
Before, next, I go and pop off to bicker down a valley;’
That brook lacks lustre, I would say,
If worded so, in such a clumsy way;

And even,  ‘. . .slithy toves when brillig was
In wabe did go gyring and gimbling’
Mixed up with lots of ‘mimsy borogoves’
And ‘mome raths that were all outgrabing,’
Does lack completely all the silly ‘sense’
One was expecting from it to come hence;

‘If you can keep your head when everyone
Is losing theirs; saying it’s your fault
If you can trust yourself when all others are doubting you,
But make allowance for all this doubting as well:’
This ‘If’ has far too many ‘buts’ to find
That out of a true poem takes your mind;
The greatest poetry must stick to rules,
And rambling rubbish should be left to fools.

© April 2019 Colonialist