Poetic Form 3: Skeltonic Verse

To the Young Voices

Set the mic a blaze

with words that wave

and crash against 

the shores of pretense

Nothing more or less

than a voice intense

with the rhythm of pain

mixed with a story main

that calls for a tomorrow

filled with love instead of sorrow

Walk tall, we will follow

Words have power

to raise towers

that allow everyone a view

of a world we strive to

Where friendship is me and you

not dictated by unwritten rule

So set that pen to paper

Build a skyscraper

Truth won’t wait until later

We need your talent on stage

and street, love too can rage

Poetic Form #3: Skeltonic Verse

This form is named after the English poet, John Skelton (c. 1463 - 21 June 1529). The rules are simple. Lines are short with a couple of stresses. The rhymes are irregular. Alliteration and parallelism are used often in this form.

To A Young Poet

I feel your words

  The angst of youth crossing every T

  The deepest questions dotting the I’s

I once raged on the page as you do

         Now I envy you

It’s not that the words have abounded me

   They can flow like water at times

      Creating new rivers of discourse

      Through the landscape of life

But I find it harder to get the words to bleed

 To cut through the skin

 To pump through my aorta

But your words fill the poem with emotion

  Needle to vain

  Band-aid needed after reading

  Two cups of orange juice just to have enough

      Energy to get off the page

Maybe I have run out of blood

    Or have become too afraid

    Filled with fear and age

          To let my heart be seen by the world

Because I’ve learned that I might speak truth

But the reader always has their own connotation

And too many times they don’t match