0004 The World Has Lost The Ear For Rhyme

The world has lost the ear for rhyme. It still makes children squirm with pleasure; and from some witty pens and minds, its fireworks fizz; so, after all these centuries of rhyme and all the games of meter, dancing words, should we now mourn its passing? Have we lost the music of another world? Instead, the easy unpretentious discourse, sober, light, familiar, honest - the world of daily, homely, shared sharp life, that's now preferred. Not prose; much more than 'chopped-up prose' as those may say who think that poetry should be more visibly hard-earned; - as if a human life set down in honesty were not a poem in itself, unwrit; 'prose with enhanced consciousness' it's often now defined; and consciousness - now that's earned, if you like... and simile, and imagery, and metaphor - all the repertoire of glorious poetry - they're all still here to work their magic; if more played down, now, unostentatious as T-shirt and jeans; unostentatious as the beating, bloody heart. And yet, when years bring tears and time brings death and dying, it's time for rhyme, to heal the heart and charm away the crying.