Derek Fenton: Two poems

Guzzling Through a Ghazal

I don’t regret the time I have spent on

seeking a rhyme, or journeys I went on

in foraging for, a good metaphor

or s.a.e.s to spend my last cent on.

Striving all night to get my poems right

and the publishers doors I have leant on.

Loading my muzzle with rhymes for a ghazal

and guzzling all the forms I am bent on.

And yet I get so terribly upset

when a poem’s subject to rejection.

Though I’d not be in this tiff, only if,

I’d written like James, not Derek, Fenton.

Poetry Reading

There were so few people at the reading,

I shouted the bar to get them to stay.

My words poured out, my heart was bleeding.

There were so few people at the reading

and just as they started speeding,

I ran to the door to block the way—

There were so few people at the reading,

I shouted the bar but they didn’t stay!

Derek Fenton