Alliteration Contest Poems: What a Perfect Poem, Paul D. Deane

Paul D. Deane is a computational linguist by vocation and a poet by avocation. He has edited Forgotten Ground Regained (alliteration.net, a website devoted to modern English alliterative verse) since 1999. Three of his poems appear in Dennis Wise’s book, Speculative Poetry and the Modern Alliterative Revival: A Critical Anthology.

What a Perfect Poem

A sample of the flyting form once beloved for insult and abuse

Pal, pardon me, but your polished verse
like a bright, burnished mirror just blanks out my vision.
When you take your turn next I trust you'll be terse --
just swerve round and swing into sweeping revision.
No lemon or lime could make my lips purse
when meter meets matter in mad imprecision
like a perfectly patterned poetic hearse.
Let it go to ground and its grave condition
in time

    will surpass the power of parasites and mold.
    Both parrots and poets can prattle and rhyme
    and bang to a beat, if I may be so bold --
    but the metronome's music is much more sublime.


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