Trying To Please

Trying to please, what do you do, 

write in rhyme and metre too?

It's purely a personal choice you say, 

but should we think of poems in this way?

Styles divulging the poet's age

set out neatly across the page, 

Words in triangles, circles and squares, 

concrete poetry from here to there.

Words from the rappers, rockers and Beats, 

Words from the broken cities and streets.

Poems composed with the aid of AI, 

giving no rhyme or reason why, 

Poems that explode their words in your face, 

spontaneous, and all over the place, 

Poems that cry and shout and scream, 

ghostly shapes in a fevered dream.

How do I please them, do the right thing, 

do I set myself up to alienate them?

With rap, crap, and outspoken rambles, 

maybe that's taking a bit of a gamble?

( This is an old poem I have reworked recently, and it has gone down well at open mic nights I read at. Maybe it works on the page, and on the stage! )