Writing by Heart
I can remember learning at school
The poems I had to learn by heart –
And yet I cannot recall them now,
We’ve slowly drifted apart.
It’s a shame,
Because some songs demand our remembering,
Work all the better when read heads-high,
With eyes in contact, and tongues in confidence,
Proudly aloud and never to be shy.
Sometimes, when I’m writing a line,
I think of someone decades hence –
Someone having to learn it at school,
Trying to make it make sense.
I’m to blame,
Because good luck committing me to memory,
With all of my showing-off to distract.
I’ll try to keep it short to make things easier,
Hope you can make it to the end intact.
But pray, allow me one more verse,
To make my case, one hit-or-miss.
And if you stumble, I shall not mind,
I’ve mangled far better than this.
All the same,
In those moments when it all comes together,
When the words are at the ready to be read –
I wish I could remember like I hope you can remember,
For no poet wishes to remain unsaid.
Rhyming Couplets 