Ronnie McGinn's Poetry Page

Whether poetry is most effective when written in form or free verse is still hotly debated. For most of us the solution to this quarrel may lie in the motivation behind the poem.

A poem intended to endow its subject with dignity and praise may be well suited to the pomp and circumstance of poetic form.

On the other hand, a work exploring the electricity of life and urban language will likely find the flexibility of free verse to be the best fit.

Our first poem for the New Year comes from Mark Stout of Blackrock in Cork. Mark is a very talented modern poet and his poems express depth and meaning that carefully disguise the underlying sparkle in his work.

Underneath the Tinsel

Dancing upon a chair
in the wilderness of eve,
Dreary eyes bespoke the way
the world is driving passed,
Animals awake from hibernation
smelling salts of tomorrow's food,
My dancing chair has broken its' leg
to crawl for sweet muffins
in the morning of uneaten herbs,
Smoke billows from yesterday's sweat
to show the training of the muscles,
Soggy undergrounds squelch in awe
as the urban fox steals the limelight,
His golden fur strikes annals
of future poetry inside my mind,
My dancing chair turns with the melodies
of the rocking dance-floor squatters,
Shelving mysteries of unwoken measures
to pierce the jelly of uncut bread.

© Mark Stout