2011 -- 4.1 (Fall) Poetry

Avoid Cliches Like the Plague

By: Rowe Lindsay Rowe

 

When he sees my

horse-of-another-color

poem of tired, worn out phrases,

beating a dead horse,

my professor will be

madder than a wet hen

but I’m not afraid of him:

he’s all bark and no bite.

 

Good writers refrain from using clichés and

have a way with words;

they can find a way to make their readers

hang on every word;

I just want to be finished, because

all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy

even though I have been told that

idle hands are the devil’s workshop.

 

Thoughts of another – pre-encapsulated

easy as 123

I will finish early and

take the easy way out.

I thought about rewriting this poem completely

starting from scratch

and changing every line, but I didn’t want

to throw the baby out with the bathwater.