Writing in Rhyme

Often I will begin to write a poem, and the first thing that comes out is a rhyme, somewhat resembling a Mother-Goose nursery rhyme. I will begin to write, and then it's as though the sounds of the words make the poem-song write itself.

This is very interesting to me, as a poetry teacher once told me to avoid the rhyming style, since it's too easy; too simple. Find a better word- try harder to make it work. I hear what she was saying. The search for the write word can be hugely important and rewarding. And the rhyme becomes the cop-out.

But what if the reason Nursery rhymes hold the power they hold is that they rhyme. The process of writing a rhyme is, just like i said, one where the sounds make the poem write itself. As though the poem was there before me-- before time, before the words even existed. Like the way the midrash says that the Torah predated the whole world.

The fact that a rhyme seems to write itself, the way a cadence needs to follow the Dominant Seventh, or the listener is left unfinished-- unsatisfied. The rhyme needs to be written, or else you're playing tricks with our minds.

And yes, mind games can be cute, and hold messages. But those messages are not as basic as the one that predates time. And anyway, you often don't need to mention the rhyme, because everyone knows what it was going to be. Since it's expected, the variation from that pre-existent theme is appreciated.

So we can just stop being afraid of what's predictable and human. The experiences we might be going through might sound cliche, but it's precisely the face that everyone experiences it that makes it cliche. And it's okay to be Cliche.

I wrote this poem a couple years ago, and this post reminds me of it:

Tzimtzum

I want structure like a rhyme

But I don’t really have the time

to sit around and think up ways

to measure out words and phrases.

I want to burst out of my very own skin

and dance on the street, so I can begin

to be who I am, no more and no less

and stop for nothing, lest I regress.

See, structure like rhyme is fine and it’s cute

but in my soul, structure makes me feel mute.

If the reason I am writing is because I’m alive

Rhyming a poem’s like going on automatic drive

Where the sounds of the words

and the rhythms I’m hearing

Create all the music

and my mind has no bearing.

Still, there’s something to music

that I can’t get enough of

it, something that’s calling down to me

from way up above.

Penetrating deep into my inner existence

That continues to persist, despite resistance.

How can there be beauty in these far-fetched, stretched lines?

All structure would seem to do is confine and undermine

all human expression, unless that’s just the thing--

that the beauty we hear and feel is exactly what we sing.

Of course, life also has surprise in it, and that's what the plays on the rhyme can try to capture. But I still find the rhyme a comfort and a pleasure.

Comments are welcome, as always.