Football Poets

JUST THREE MINUTES TO GO

¶ 1 Leave a comment on verse 1 0 Just three minutes to go in this poem
Just three minutes
Plus
Whatever the poet decides to add on
And you have to say it’s been a scrappy poem
A few niggles early on
But then you’d expect that
When these two get together
The Poet and the Poem
Not surprising that those old tensions
Which go back over so many painful encounters,
Should bubble to the surface
Well, that’s right
When the poet takes the poem on
He knows
It’s not going to be easy
The poem will never give in
But I think the poet can be proud of the way he’s written today
You have to remember
This is the 14th Draft
Never easy
Coming up with those
Little bits of fine tuning
But the poem hasn’t been allowed to dictate the tempo
And for me, that’s been the key
And you just get the feeling
That the poet is now
Moving up a gear
Expressing himself
Shaking off the fear
Oh – bit of a rhyme there
Bit by bit burying the beast of banality
That beset his books at the beginning
-And alliteration!
The crowd are loving this
And he’s full of confidence now
He’s trying something new
Think it might
be
a Haiku
And he’s lost it!
Oh, dearie me!
He’s lost it
And just as he was beginning to take control
Of the final stanzas
He tries
A Haiku
And, well…
Well, that was absolutely unbelievable,
The poem’s in the bag
All you need to do is keep it tight
For a couple more verses
And what does he try
A Haiku
The last thing he needed at this stage
And all of a sudden, the poem is back in control here
It could go to extra stanzas
And, even worse it could go to a re-write
And that’s the last thing he needs
With that publishing deadline coming up
And what the poet must do now
Is keep his head
Remain focussed
On what has been achieved here
Oh, but he’s getting involved
He’s squaring up to the poem
Oh – and there’s a fist raised
And the sound of paper tearing
It’s all getting very ugly out there
And this is exactly what we don’t want to see
On a poetry page
That’s right
A really bad example for any young poets looking in
But the poet has got to curb this short fuse of his
He’s got learn to walk away
Well, it’s free verse
And quickly taken
The poet desperate to get back into this now
Looking once more to relax
And paper over the cracks
Well, he tried a rhyme there
But it was a cheeky rhyme
And the crowd don’t like that
But wait
The insurgent roar of the poet’s final stanza
Rips the last wretched breath
From the poem’s battered barricades
A telling moment there
The poem wasn’t expecting that that
And that’s it
It’s all over
The poem is complete
No need for extra stanzas
No need for a re-write
And no wonder there’s a big smile
All over the poet’s face
And now the poet moves
On to the next phase
Where he will meet
Sonnet
And that…could be a real test
That’s right- with that rigid line structure
Any mistakes like tonight will surely be punished
And the poem throwing his arms round the poet there
That’s good to see
Yes, that’s what verse is all about
Poem and poet battling it out
To the last line
But at the end of the day
A real bond between the two
But today
The poet has done
What we knew he was capable of
A completed final draft
But for now
It’s goodbye from the page
And a very relieved poet

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