LIFE IS AN OPEN VERSE
H. W. BRYCE
Life is an open verse,
Often undisciplined
rugged and rough
/with broken lines, unlike its synonyms,
Frequently enjambed.
With calms between the storms,
With reasons, maybe rhymes,
And life is a sonnet of love
a feast song of rhythmic couplets,
Complete poems on their own /
An opus of open verses
In their own right…
If you do it right.
Sometimes life draws a blank
And you’re stumpefied for a /clue ?
But you are open
\to new thoughts. . .
So you brainstorm for ideas
And “voila!” a new line, a new verse
Opens up /like a flower
On your path of life as an open verse…
Sometimes life breaks out in a song,
A time when nothing seems to go wrong,
Each day is a melody,
Every week a new chorus.
Yes, life is an open verse,
Open to Love…or worse . . .
“Oh, the poet labors all his days
To build the beauty in his rhyme”*
And the person labors long
In his trying to stay young…….
Some doors, they stay open,
Some doors shut right in your face.
And life is like a pudding
Too thick to set a pace sometimes,
Or too loose to not run away…
. . .Too uncertain just to stay.
Some people keep on trying To spite the nose that’s on their face,
But neither freedom of the verse Nor the rhythm of the beat
Will conform to a stubborn mind Unless they learn to be kind
In life you are free to try this Or that, or the Other, dance
Or sing, Mope or take dope, Build yourself up or drive
Yourself down, Life is an Open Verse, you’re free to take a chance.
The music of life that you dance to Can change with a tap
On the drum, the steps that you take Will of course depend;
Sometimes there’s a chorus you can keep / Repeat for a little while.
But then, the disc jockey picks up the Pace and . . . your rhythm ends.
Others you can learn from, They live with joy and charm, Gay Abandon,
They seem to know the Secret is in the Living, the Gift is in the Giving.
Life is an open verse. Make music first before you fill your purse.
Do what you love, make your life A Love Affair, every step another verse.
*John Keats in Endymion:
“A thing of beauty is a joy forever,
Its loveliness increases, it will never
Pass into nothingness but still will keep
Full of sweet dreams, and health,
And quiet breathing.”
ME—A life well led is a thing of beauty
The breaks, the capitalizations, the “punctuations” and symbols
are intended to symbolize the rough and tumble of living.
