0338 Just Couldn'T Hack It

A hard writing I had of it; the words clumsy, the sense banal... escaping from rhyme isn't easy; half a lifetime to work up to it then like skirt length, that's it, the line's short this season, and rhyme is, so, like, so last year... (and must be insincere if you have to work at it or even want to) so there I was in the midst of getting the hang of cutting the line at the best place for the sense, to avoid the artificial on the one hand and the banal on the other -the art that conceals the art - and scenting euphony, when suddenly - a crash - and in there lumbered - 'woodenly'... I twigged instantly that it wouldn't go without a struggle; and called in Suddenly for questioning - had they some sort of pact in the recesses of my mind - kissin' cousins, blood brothers, partners in rhyme? Suddenly denied this vigorously - never been asked such a question before, wouldn't want to associate etc.; a word only used by theatre critics... So I sighed and threw out my neatly chopped prose, spontaneity, jokes, and anything goes; and returned to meaningful old-fashioned verse so woodenly crafted - well, poets have done worse.