I’ve tried my best to write beautiful verse
To seek my muse and don the poet’s hat
But meter and rhyme go from bad to worse
Look, just for the rhyme, I throw in a cat
Reading great poets doesn’t help at all
Or make writing verses less of a slog
Their talent for writing just casts a pall
Look, just for the rhyme, I throw in a dog
I can appreciate, why can’t I write?
Genius, alas, is a very rare trait
The talent for writing is like your height
You’re short or tall, and that is your fate
But using a cat or a dog for the rhyme
It really does save a good deal of time
No Harm Spilt 
Alan,you may not believe this, but your poem is ORDERS OF MAGNITUDE BETTER than pretty well any poem I’ve read in The New Yorker or The Walrus over the past few years.
Of course verses don’t have to rhyme, but even in contemporary times there have to be SOME characteristics that distinguish poetry from prose. Perhaps elegant turns of phrase would be a start? But the “poems” in the latter journals (and I suspect in most collections of modern verse) are basically drivel …..
Sorry for the rant!
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If you were the poetry editor for the New Yorker, Reuben, doggerel would come into its own.
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It came into its own a long time ago in THe New Yorker (and THe Walrus).
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