Graham has been a class member for several terms and very much likes a poem to rhyme! On this note I asked him to write a poem that did NOT rhyme which I think is one of his best.
There are two further poems, one of which is very much inspired by John Betjeman, and the other an emotive and very sensitive handling of the breakdown of a relationship.

Spending Time Eschewing Rhyme

My brow deeply furrowed by the task I’ve been set
Hides an edifice in my mind
Blocking any attempt to ignore words that rhyme
To shun iambic pentameters and sonnets
To refrain from limericks and odes
So I sit and wrestle with long held opinion
And try to write blank verse

A sentence escapes and floats above my pen
But before the first word can alight
On the daunting virginity of the page
It flees like a frightened sparrow
And takes refuge behind the wall of my prejudice
Where it is worried and snapped at
By rhyming couplets angry at being suppressed

The wall cracks a little
And sentences seep out and fall
In a haphazard melange onto the paper
Where they are chased by a critical pencil
Intent on deleting, editing and bullying them
Into nice neat verses that look pretty on the page
But contain no poetry

Movers and Shakers (a bunch of piss-takers)

All those executives with their starched shirts and club ties
Pushing round papers that nobody reads
Stuffed with importance, they think that they’re something
They produce nothing that anyone needs.
In the fullness of time and when all’s said and done too
At the end of the day they’ve been dealing with things
When they’re punching the envelope, they see the big picture,
The playing field’s level when the fat lady sings.

They talk in loud voices and yet they say nothing
In the summer they’re found in a Benidorm bar
Their wives bitch about all their rivals shortcomings
Who’s got the most shoes and who drives the best car.

They invite people round, they have dinner parties
When they’ve just got a new HD TV
They crow over tapas on Habitat sofas
Oh haven’t you got one yet? We’ve got three.

All in due course and when taking the long view
In real terms while nodding and shaking their head
They play squash on Thursdays with someone called Gerald
And no one recalls what they did when they’re dead.

Basically Sad

The tears that my eyes are not shedding
The crying you won’t see me do
The voice that you’ll never hear breaking
Is a mask that I wear just for you.
You’ll never know how much you hurt me
I’ve no desire to make you feel bad
Hope that you’re fundamentally happy
Just as I’m fundamentally sad.

I thought we would be married for ever
Fifteen years was all you could take
When we were no longer together
Something inside had to break.
I’ll never blame you for quitting
I don’t consider your new man a cad
Hope he makes you fundamentally happy
It makes me fundamentally sad.

I seldom write about feelings
It’s often too painful to do
No innuendos, no deep hidden meanings
Just a message from me meant for you.

I’ve no eloquent pen for emotion
No elegant prose of remorse
No purulent song of devotion
No relevant thoughts on divorce.
Except that maybe I made it too easy
I didn’t fight you, I didn’t get mad
Hope that you’re fundamentally happy
Just as I’m fundamentally sad.

I’m feeling centrally
Feeling essentially
Quite fundamentally
Sad.