Kill your darlings

I have nothing against free verse... Really!

To poets who find themselves past using meter –
To poets who write without syntax or rhyme,
To those who think writing in free verse is neater
And leave their work fraught with grammatical grime:

You – writer – just start with your poem, yes, you sow it,
But there you run out of all patience and grace.
You – poet – don’t bother to nurture and grow it,
You leave it contemptibly vile and base.

Another pain my heart doth rent
As I doth read that wrenched accent!
That dreadful scourge of poets global
Doth the most serious poem make so droll!

A ladle or two of depressed melodrama
Can dumb down or ruin your verse altogether!
So pen your deep insights as light as a feather…
Or risk blocking out your pristine panorama.

Beware – fraudsters – spellers of veld with a t!
That veldt is a word to be met with by snarlings!
Go study your fat, fancy dictionary –
Come back when you’re able to kill your darlings.