I’LL CONTINUE MY RHYMING WAYS and A POET'S PARADOX

I wrote the following poems after attending a poetry class at OLLI. At the first class, the instructer discouraged rhyming poetry, and said her publisher would not consider publishing rhyming poems. Classmates stated they "didn't want to be understood". I enjoyed the class, and learned new ways to express myself. Also, I was inspired to write the following:

I’LL CONTINUE MY RHYMING WAYS

If rhyming poems are not in fashion.
Then royalty checks I won’t be cashing.
I much prefer the immortality,
Achieved by those who rhyme like me.
Who can say that they don’t know,
A line or two composed by Poe?
T’ would be a shame if we never heard,
Emerson’s “shot heard round the world”.
And though at times she was quite a shocker,
I want to be like Dorothy Parker
Another who rhymes and is regarded highly
Is fellow Hoosier, James Whitcomb Riley.
Hoosiers Hoagy and Cole were not wrong
When they put rhyme in every song.
Most un-rhyming poems, for Heaven’s sakes,
Are simply prose with line breaks.
So, I’ll continue my rhyming ways
As long as my poems earn laughs and praise


By Sue Raymer Woods
July 9, 2008

A POET’S PARADOX

Paradox, say it so you seem sophisticated,
and some fools will think you’re educated.
I love the word, but when I “google” it,
I still don’t know what to do with it.
A mystery in an enigma. HUH?
But,I still don't understand it. DUH!
Some poets when they make no sense at all,
will smugly claim ‘it’s paradoxical”
I don’t understand, please excuse me,
But, I know your plan was to confuse me.
A riddle within a riddle, NOT!
But clearly clarity they forgot.
As Nietzsche advised: you should keep.
From muddying your water so it seems deep.
Though you may find my poem nonsensical,
You should admit it’s comprehensible.
Paradox, an intriguing word of mine,
It's fun to use it in my rhyme.

By Sue Raymer Woods
August 10, 2008, Revised March 22,2009