Practise with Ashley: Syllabic Poems on the Subjects of Rain and Hygiene

I attempted another writing exercise from Stephen Fry's brilliant book on poetry The Ode Less Travelled. As highlighted in the title of this entry, I was required to write two syllabic poems on the subjects of rain and hygiene respectively. The first is a syllabic verse with alternating seven and five-syllable lines; the second, two stanzas of verse running 3, 6, 1, 4, 8, 4, 1, 6, 3.

First poem:

Rain

The sky was no longer blue
When rain fell, pouring
Staining the torchlight within
Especially when
The thunder shouted, enraged,
Like angry mums who
Craved cradles of milk.

Painful lullabies that cried
Turned my blue eyes grey.
Raindrops leaked out from both pipes
As the threat to fling
My childhood into the well
Of stale acid rain
Was bellowed out by stunted
Adults whose hearts were
Crashed by lightning at tender years.

Second poem:

Hygiene

Angels with
Dirty faeces were the
Names
We were given
By our older cousins when we
Forgot, again,
To
Brush our teeth and wash our
Hands with soap.

Strangely, when
We were older, we found
Our
So-called grown-up
Cousins picking their noses and
Then,
Ate with those hands
True angels with dirty
Faeces. Them.