Trochees and iambs have similar meter,
dactyls have three beats, appealing to Peter,
anapests rhyming with twelve-measure beat:
These are a few of my favourite feet.

Writing a sonnet, that’s my first decision.
If it’s Italian, there may be derision.
So I choose English, to rhyme it is neat,
for I can use all of my favourite feet.

Assonance, sibilance, alliteration,
Steal style from Greek, or I steal it from Thracian.
Anything saccharine, overly sweet
Drips from the verse with my favourite feet.

Chorus
When the critics pan my poems,
They all make me mad,
I merely give them a two-fingered salute
and then I don’t feel so bad.

Phrases and adverbs to create an image.
Adjectives to bend in an untidy scrimmage.
“Show it don’t tell it”, I must never cheat
just to get in all my favourite feet.

A villanelle, that’s a much harder project.
Words that don’t rhyme in the end I must reject
Three lines a stanza, and each one must meet
up at the end with my favourite feet

Octava rima, eight lines in each stanza
keeping it rhyming, an extravaganza.
Perhaps a rondeau form means that I can meet
all its requirements with my favourite feet.

Chorus
When the critics pan my poems,
They all make me mad,
I merely give them a two-fingered salute
and then I don’t feel so bad.
 

                                   3 April 2024