‘God Save Poetry’ by Don Shook

 
 
There is a scourge that permeates our midst
Which we cannot so easily dismiss.
Elitists strive to elevate this curse;
A type of art most poets call free verse.
 
True poetry once rhymed and had some form,
A style evoking passion was the norm;
But now these attributes are deemed archaic
As it makes little difference how you say it.
 
To be successful and not called a bore
You must engorge your work with metaphor;
And that your subject matter’s less than drivel
Is not a matter over which to quibble.
 
So lose the punctuation, it’s too quaint;
And end a sentence where its ending ain’t.
Abstraction then becomes the end of means,
Depicting not what is but what it seems.
 
You dare not look on free verse with disdain
Or devotees will challenge your domain,
And ostracize each work that you create
As being shallow, mundane, or too late.
 
And so we hail the era of free verse,
And poetry could suffer nothing worse;
It really isn’t poetry…you see,
Let’s call it what it is… it’s prosetry,
It’s poetrose…it’s esoteric claptrap!

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Don Shook, wearing the many hats of actor, director, producer and author, has award-winning scripts, television shows, and theatrical productions in his bag of credits. Formally with NBC in New York, he performed at Carnegie Hall in Tom Booth’s opera “Gentlemen In Waiting”, announced on air for WNBC, and was part of “The Tonight Show” with Johnny Carson. He also taught music and drama at Texas A&M at Commerce, Duncanville High School, Temple Jr. College, Greenville Junior High and Brookhaven College in Dallas. Mr. Shook has written five novels, four screenplays, an acting handbook and over a dozen teleplays and wrote, directed and produced three shows, in Branson, Missouri. He has conducted Masters Acting Workshops for Stage West Theatre in Fort Worth and at The Granbury Opera Academy in Granbury, Texas. www.donshook.com/dshook3