Risk Averse

Let’s take risks with our poetry,
line by line, foot by foot,
iamb sick of playing safe.
Try off-beat enjambe
-ment, syntax strange and
dumdled spelling.

Invent words;
like “wordhaft”,
or “spudulikée”,
or one to rhyme
with oranges.

Spill blood on the pages,
not ink.
Plant mines in sentences,
hide triggers like tripwires
in unassuming stanzas,
once we’ve reeled the reader in.

Treat rhyme as infernal,
internal is best,
go careful lest
your rhyme locks you
in the nursery-time.

Risk it all, risk a bit
just put some passion
into all of it.

See.

It’s time to risk a verse,
much worse would be
to venture nothing
and never gain again.