Compulsion to Rhyme
(All the Time)
You may guess there are drawbacks to writing as I do,
for lately, I must find a rhyme for everything I view.
This matching up of words that rhyme has come to be compulsion.
A harmless one, but still one sometimes met with some revulsion.
When making jokes or making bread or making whoop-de-do,
I always think of words that rhyme and then I voice a few.
So when a lover bites my neck and with my hair is toying,
and the only word that I can find to rhyme is “cloying;”
it certainly gets in the way of my successful “boying!”
Or when a good friend feeds me and under-cooks the meat,
as I run through my retinue to find a rhyme that’s neat;
and she happens to hear me just as I curse the red,
wishing she had opted for a well-done steak instead,
my sincere protestations do not seem to be accepted.
If only that one choice of rhymes had not been intercepted,
perhaps she would still ask me to her luncheons and her dinners.
Instead, I’ve wound up on her list of culinary sinners!
As much as I like rhyming, sometimes it is a curse,
for what is my best habit may also be my worse.
If only long ago I’d learned how not to rhyme each word,
the last one in this poem would not need to be “absurd.”
The Prompt: Not Lemonade-When life gives you lemons… make something else. Tell us about a time you used an object or resolved a tricky situation in an unorthodox way.
As a writer, almost any bad situation may be improved by writing about it! It doesn’t always solve the problem, but at least something positive may be gained out of something negative. This poem makes light of this tendency, but the truth is that I almost always feel better after writing about something, no matter how it has turned out in reality.
(This post is dedicated to Laura and Mamta, who prompted it by commenting on my proclivity to rhyme. And because I cannot waste even a mediocre product, to Duckie!)
‘boying’ now there’s a word! There’s maturity and wisdom here and a gentle self-effacement.
i like this, Judy, like it a lot.
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I must give credit to an old camp counselor who, finding two of her charges coming back from the latrines one evening after dark, was heard to say, “You’re not pulling the wool over my eyes, young ladies. I know you’ve been off boying!!” Thanks, Mrs. Walker, for contributing uniqueness to my poem.
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Hi….loved it…I love rhyming too… to me poetry has to rhyme. … I am not as gifted to write … but I do enjoy reading…. gr8 work
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I like both, but for some reason rhyming is easier–perhaps because I keep it on the surface and humorous…Now and then, for my soul, I need to write unrhymed. Rhymed is fun, though…I do appreciate your reading and commenting, Ripples! Judy
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Hi there….well my name is Aruna…
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Hi Aruna. Nice to meet you.
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Rhyming for me is like a COD thing. Sometimes my dreams rhyme. It comes in spurts.I can’t come close to your proclivity. I love your style.
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