Sample Poem

Here are a couple of poems. The first won the Marple Humourous Poetry Prize in 2010, and the second won the Swanezine Poetry Prize in 2012.

The Poetry Diet - drop a stanza in just two weeks!

Breakfast is blank verse spread with ballads
Or a bowl of elegy and a boiled ode.

For lunch, try a rondelet with herbs such as cento.
Follow with a lay if liked,
Sweetened artificially if necessary.
Vary your cinquains and quatrains
According to season.

For dinner a well-grilled villanelle
With a simple side sonnet and a little steamed prose.
Do beware of prose. It can be hard to stop.
Make sure to keep crunchy acrostics to hand.

For snacks, try haiku.
They're surprisingly meaty
And will satisfy.

Free verse is unlimited.

Drink at least eight couplets a day,
And up to three glasses of freshly-squeezed phrases.

When tempted by fizzy limericks,
Chewy clerihews, chocolate epics and sweet lyrics,
Visualise yourself as a sexy sestina
Rather than doughy doggerel.
This poem is semantically proven
And has been approved by dactyls
And other members of the metrical profession.
It really, really works.

Child and the Future

Little one, your hurts, though deep, are fleeting.
You always hope for better, tomorrow.
Not like me, too knowing, slug heart beating
while yours pounds swiftly in joy or sorrow.
As the doors of dreams slam finally shut
and knee grazes become heart's dragging wounds,
one copes with haircut, pay cut, paper cut;
music no longer magic, just nice sounds.
It's not all bad. You keep some illusions.
The drawn-out years become flashing seasons.
You can smile at popular delusions
and settle with your comfortable reasons.
Yet, child of mine, keep hope for better things.
Innocence should shape what the future brings.