Good poetry brings together these three
Elements that are most necessary
To fashion words into good poetry:
Story and meter and rhyme.
Story is words told together that bring
Thoughts of the heart to the hearer on wing.
Story's the subject about which you sing
In melody so sublime.
Meter's the pattern in which words are laid,
Woven like an ornamental brocade,
Marching in step like an army parade:
How many beats in a line.
Rhyme is the matching of terminal sound
Creating symmetry where it is found.
When it's done rightly, a poem will abound
With rhythm hard to confine.
Without the meter you've naught but a rhyme
Without the rhyme then you've naught but a verse
Without the story you've naught but a jingle
To make your ears tingle and that's even worse!

4/01