The Secret of the Rhyme

How does poetry happen? I have written my share of juvenile poems, but they all started out the same way. Find what you want to write about, find words which are relevant, find words that rhyme with them and try to make a sentence. But is that how real poets do it? Or is it like an inspiration? Rhymes and metres just pop into one's head..Is that it?

If I set out to write a silly poem, I can do it as well as the next person, I think.

A girl was so sick of books
That she started writing stuff
She knows she spews nonsense
But to stop the flow is tough.

But the point is, no one ever sets out to write silly poems. Everyone wants to be one of those poets whose poems have one or two words a line, with deep deep meaning which is hard for mere mortals to fathom. About deep dark feelings or mysteries. Ok, lets try that now.

Flowing water
running away
with my
dreams
of untold
happiness.
if dreams
are gone
what remains?
the hope
of a new dream..
to be
washed away
by another stream?

Now, how was that? Reading it again, I am unpleasantly reminded of General Science classes of Soil Erosion. Plus, its not unfathomable. Maybe my thoughts aren't deep enough. Thats sad. I am too shallow to be a poet. And too understandable to be a good one.

After all the nonsensical experiments, my question remains unanswered. What makes feelings come out in rhyme and metre? Ye poets of great repute, I await enlightenment.