A Plate Of Decorated Poetry In A Zoom Room (Cheeerful Poem 22)

I woke, creative, in the night

Beside my bed, paper and pen

I scribbled 'til I saw daylight

But could not get to sleep again

Count each line has eight syllables

Give each strong beat a pencil tick

Add a spicy simile?  Frown ...

Gingerbread house! Built from word bricks!

I circled all the simple rhymes

Left gaps between each four-line verse

Replaced long words which sounded strange

Unzipped my brain, spent my word purse

Cut each each poem to fit one page

Enough poems to fill a book.

Then read aloud on a Zoom stage!

Scanned strangers' faces like a cook

I'd found a small like-minded crowd

Thirty, leader, beards, all ages

Two minutes, each one read aloud

Showed slides of illustrated pages

Clap when each pair of poems ends

In Chat, type one warm word of praise

Take home reward for your hard work

Each poem, like shared cake, made friends.

-ends-

I am wondering whether to increase the syllable count to ten in order to put the whole poem into the past tense and make it more flowing and natural and conversational and readable.

Happy Birthday and Happy Wedding Anniversary. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

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