R – Rivals
Rivals is an old poem and it was inspired from a prompt at my first Open University Creative Writing Tutorial. I love to paint but because of writing there never seems to be the time. So here’s my paintbrush complaining.
Rivals
Rivals
I stand alone in a colourful pot,
bristles, dry and crispy,
why do those inky
rivals get attention
and not me?
Dip me in blue,
paint a cloudless sky,
orange, a fire burnished sun.
Dip me in green, paint a land
with tall trees, mounds on moors
but instead she chooses the pen.
Abandoned I stand and wait for the time,
when her words too, will become dry.
Until then here I am, stiff, rigid and cold,
watching and envying the pen.
***
A few Poetic terms
R – Reader
Although a poet writes for him/herself first and foremost – poems need to be heard – they need an audience – they need a reader.
R – Refrain
A refrain is a bit like the chorus in a song.
R – Repetition
Repetition works well in some poetry and of course the refrain comes into that.
R – Rhyme
And we mustn’t forget rhyme. Sometimes though the rhyme isn’t always obvious, but you need to listen out for it. You can have internal rhyme or slant rhyme such as brake/brave.
When using end rhyme the poet needs to take care that the poem doesn’t become forced, it has to be natural. My favourite form to write is free verse. I like to listen out for sound echoes by using internal rhyme and heightening the images with the use of imagery. However I do enjoy writing closed forms too and see them as mathematical challenges.
***
Patricia M Osborne 