A Reason for Rhyme

By Eddie Morales

Eddie Morales started writing poetry in High School, where he was fi rst
introduced to the works of Edgar Allan Poe, William Shakespeare, and
Edna St. Vincent Millay, his three favorite poets today, forty years later.
In between then and ten years ago, a span of thirty years, he saw a great
decline in the area of rhyming poetry. No one rhymed anymore. Today, the
beautiful art of rhyme is practically non-existent. Some established poets still
rhyme, but you rarely see the works in print.
Twelve years ago, Morales attended his fi rst convention, and he was hooked
forever on poetry. Although the poems presented were free verse, he listened
carefully as he heard many of the poets attending, year after year, express
concerns in regards to rhyming poetry. The public clamored for rhyming
poetry, but the established poets were not forthcoming. This presented a
great opportunity for change, and there was hope for the return of rhyming
poetry. And so, a few years ago, Morales published his fi rst book, A Reason
For Rhyme, and later published, The Suicide Sonnets.
In his third book of poetry, presented here, Count Edweird Lefangs Rhymin
Halloween, Morales combines the art of rhyme, utilizing the numerous rhyming
forms used by famous poets of the past and present, with humorous and
serious fl air that teachers and students as well as the public can all enjoy.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Mar 22, 2005
• ISBN: 9781453518328

Eddie Morales

Eddie Morales started writing poetry in High School, where he was fi rst introduced to the works of Edgar Allan Poe, William Shakespeare, and Edna St. Vincent Millay, his three favorite poets today, forty years later. In between then and ten years ago, a span of thirty years, he saw a great decline in the area of rhyming poetry. No one rhymed anymore. Today, the beautiful art of rhyme is practically non-existent. Some established poets still rhyme, but you rarely see the works in print. Twelve years ago, Morales attended his fi rst convention, and he was hooked forever on poetry. Although the poems presented were free verse, he listened carefully as he heard many of the poets attending, year after year, express concerns in regards to rhyming poetry. The public clamored for rhyming poetry, but the established poets were not forthcoming. This presented a great opportunity for change, and there was hope for the return of rhyming poetry. And so, a few years ago, Morales published his fi rst book, A Reason For Rhyme, and later published, The Suicide Sonnets. In his third book of poetry, presented here, Count Edweird Lefang’s Rhymin’ Halloween, Morales combines the art of rhyme, utilizing the numerous rhyming forms used by famous poets of the past and present, with humorous and serious fl air that teachers and students as well as the public can all enjoy.

Book preview

Contents

A Reason for Rhyme

Introduction

A Daughter

A Mortal Love

An Old Sailor’s Lament

Blight Within

Blinding Light

Butterfly Dancing

By Candlelight

Death of a Hamster

Desperate Times (Circa 1953)

Don’t Give Your Land to Strangers Metal Cold

Dream Significance

Fair lady

Flawless Love

Full Circle (Traditional)

Full Circle (for the Pulpit)

I Bid You Love

Imagined Infidelity

Johnny and Rose

Life’s a Tick

Long Live the King

Love and Honey

Medusa’s Love Song

Merlin’s Hourglass

My Dear Jane Doe

My Garden of Roses

My Little Smile

No Fancy Casket

Poetry

Remember Always 9/11/2001

Reply to the Hummingbird

Sometimes Love

Tetrad of Sonnets One: Passion

Tetrad of Sonnets Two: Hands

The Death of Karetta Tress

The Flame

The King Who Would Be Jester

Tribute to Edgar Allan Poe

The Murder of Ravens

The Rise and Fall of the Dark Angel

The Rise and Fall of the Dark Angel

The Villanelle Master

Thunder and Rain

Touched

Two Gents from Wayne Township

Wild Orchid

Witness to the Stations of the Cross

My Haikus

Short stories using elements of poetry

Café Espresso at the Border

Faith

In Retrospect

Juxtaposition

Nightingale at My Window

Shallow Graves

Stigmata

The Dance

The Eyes of War

Tuning Fork

Unanswered Questions

What I Have Learned

Dedication

I dedicate to all who hear

The beauty of an echoed word,

These verses, aching to be heard,

This Art to those who lend an ear.

I give to you, with voice sincere,

The workings of a mind inspired

By poets, past and present; fired

by flame the Muses live to burn,

Where each, when lit, must take his turn,

And I am . . . by Death’s rhyme . . . retired.

In loving memory of my sister

Ileana

To the memory of my childhood friends

Emma Zayas and Nelida Zayas

To my wonderful parents

Juan and Sara

To my brothers

Juan Jr., Daniel, and Hector

To my sisters

Judith, Nelida, Luz Maria, Daisy, Teresita, and Elizabeth

Special thanks to

Dianna Villanueva

for her honest critique of my poems

To my eldest daughter Veronica and grandson Eric

and thanks to my daughter Chloe for the author’s bio

And my son Peter for the author’s photo

A Reason for Rhyme

I want my rhymes to weep and sing—

express nostalgia and desire;

thrust fluid verses from the spring

which flood the gates of Dante’s fire.

I want to sculpt my words of stone,

so each, when chipped, in fine detail,

may find a soul to spark its own,

and like Rodin’s pure art, prevail.

I want to brush my verses faint

with hues from Autumn’s falling tears,

and in Monet’s own Garden paint

impressions of immortal years.

I want to hear the spraying foam

from where fair Venus rose above,

and from her footprints on the loam

see rise the rhymes of mortal love.

I want to tame my verses wild

the way the cowboy tames his steeds,

then ride into the sunset mild,

with lasso ’round my tumbling weeds.

I want to live in days of old,

when Nymphs and Muses plucked the heart,

and lit the torches brave and bold,

with fire from the rhyming art.

But most of all, I want to teach

all children in the here and now,

that all the forms are theirs to reach,

if masters verse to show them how.

For every dawn there’s end of day,

and like the rest, I’ll serve my time.

But rest assured, the world will say:

Morales gave his life to rhyme.

Introduction

To quote Lieutenant Colonel Frank Slade (played by Al Pacino)

in the movie, Scent of a Woman, when asked by Mr. Trask,

Are you finished, Mr. Slade?—No. I’m just gettin’ warmed up.

The warming up process began in High School with

The Canterbury Tales. But I never really got the fire going.

In the interim, I let the fire die out, while time moved me

forward through life, and thirty years had passed.

In the summer of ’99, I entered my poem The Flame

in a poetry contest. I wrote it almost twenty years earlier

but to everyone else it was a new poem. It didn’t win any prizes.