Rhyme and Reason

When a special event or anniversary comes up, we buy cards to send. An amazing number of people take time to choose cards with the right words - short poems to express the good wishes they want to send. To me that indicates a love of poetry. And poetry does not have to be the kind of thing we had to learn and recite at school. It just has to be an attractive (and succinct) way of expressing a thought. In recent times I have taken to writing my own verses in cards for anniversaries and special occasions. When the mood takes me I write poems about love and friendship, and even about my travels. My wife persuaded me to collect them and put them in this book. They are written in a variety of styles - wouldn't it be boring if they were all in the same rhythm? Some of the poems rhyme, in the old fashioned way, and others do not. As I have written elsewhere, the three essential elements of poetry are rhyme, rhythm and rhetoric - any two will do. By rhetoric I mean evocative language that affects and influences the thinking or emotions of others. Often, when I am writing to someone I care about, I may glance through a book of poetry, and a line or two will provide just the right kind of inspiration. Perhaps this book will do the same for you. I have laid out the poems in sections to make it easy for you to find the right words to suit your moment. If you feel like adapting any of my poems for one of your own friends, just go ahead and do so. Just put at the bottom: Adapted from a poem by Phillip Khan-Panni.