Author Information
"Harboured Regret"
by Jeph Johnson
my words bend
yet depend
on my rhyme taking shape
so profound
I'm surrounded,
yet still they're opaque
they are built
to the hilt
to harbour my regret
I'm amazed
at the phrases
that stay undetected
I'm about
to lash out
when the melancholy mood
of my song,
right or wrong,
strips my patterned folly nude
unimpressed
I'm undressed;
all I used to conceal
has emerged
and converged
with the things that aren't real
what gets to me
is this mystery
I try hard to convey
is lost on those
accosted poets
who see rhyme in the way
"he's limited by
uninhibited tries
to make words sound the same"
what they forget
is that my regret
is harboured without shame
