So, class, it’s been a long while
(or a very short eternity)
since I left you
doodling in margins.
Have you managed a rhyme, yet?
No rush, take your time,
it’s not as if anybody’s life depended on it.
To be honest
(as a poet rarely is),
your words,
when put on a page,
will be looked upon maybe six
or seven times
before being looked upon
no more.
This is the way of Poetry –
with very few exceptions.
So, if you have just written the twenty-first century’s equivalent
of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,
Daffodils,
or Ozymandias,
then all is well
and good.
If, like me,
you have been doodling in margins…
well, doodling is creative…
… isn’t it?
Graeme Sandford 