ABPA - Australian Bush Poets Association

The Disappearing Poem

© Stephen Whiteside 16.09.2012

This is not a common way to write.
No doubt when it’s complete the finished sight
Will look quite odd. It matters not a whit.
Of course, the subject matter is quite trite.
It’s all about the form, the look of it.
I rub my hands together, and I spit.

I’m working to a very simple plan.
Can I pull it off? I think I can.
Each verse will have one line less than the one
That comes before it. Still, I hope the scan
And rhyme will stay intact. I’m halfway done!

Now I have a four line verse. That should
Be bread and butter to an old bush scribe.
Alternating rhymes are always good -
Common tools of trade throughout the tribe.

Next we have a triplet. Don’t see much
Of them these days. I doubt that this is new.
The paucity was likely ever such.

A couplet brings the ending into view.
Most will see it all as Double Dutch.

It might, though, give a chuckle to a few.

chuckle, chuckle,

Heather

ditto

Chuckles make the world turn round...

Is that what they call it now Chuckles !


Might try that sometime


Bob

He he,

Or should that be hee hee. I feel, however, that the form is somewhat overpowering the content. When I read the title I expected something a little shorter, perhaps repetitive.

Do you know the children's verse about the Boa Constrictor?
It ends with 'Oh dread he's up to my.........'.

There is no content, Zondrae. There's nothing to overpower!

ah!

but in that poem... the person speaking is slowly being swallowed ie disappearing as the poem goes on.

as does your poem.... No?

Yes, I suppose so, though I hadn't quite thought of it that way.

Funnily enough - when I read this I was thinking of the same Boa Constricter poem that Zondrae mentions.

It was written by American poet/songwriter Shel Silverstien, who was also a talented cartoonist and his kids poems were accompanied by his quirky drawings. He wrote a wide range of poems and songs and I don't know if there is a name for this style of writing but it is like writing a poem in "the now". Another notable example by Silverstien is the song lyric "25 minutes to go" which Johnny Cash recorded, it is a chilling count down of a man waiting at the gallows.

I enjoyed your poem, Stephen.

Cheers, Marty