Halfway through! Time for a metapoem! Indy asked this question, and comes from a particularly legocentric family.
Think of words as Lego bricks.
And English lessons as instructions
Tell you where and what to click
Together, minimal disruption
If you follow all the rules
You can write a thing called prose
Use the recommended tools
To build what everybody knows
Is right. Is writing. All to plan
Just like the picture on the packet
But with poetry you can
Ignore the rules. Make new ones. Hack it.
If you want, you make it rhyme
Or choose your words to form a rhythm
But it’s your choice every time
Nothing has to be a given.
you don’t need to do the things
that your teacher would insist on
just make sure your poem sings,
touches hearts, confronts the system.
So, a poet must be wise:
Following the rules is easy
But to have to improvise
Does make many people queasy
Can you take a lego set
With plans and pictures, so you know it
Makes a house, but build a jet?
Congratulations. You’re a poet.
Tom Juniper Poetry 