04-18-2013, 06:55 PM
Yet another sad offering. Wanted to convey the idea of learning to ride through alternating lines of (fixed) meter...instead sort of achieved my aim by just having meter all over the place ! 
Riding lessons
If only I could ride, I would gallop from Ghent into Aix.
The news will be good. I to claim my fame and with Rolland my steed,
he striding in pride, with me astride ... and my prize:
To look in your eyes and say “Hurrah I’ve learnt how to ride!".
But I gig and jog and flip and flop and my stirrups are not one with me.
And haltingly, with trembling knee I sit on my steed and I pleed,
oh how I should flee, back to the car, back to the bar and then shove
this ridiculous dream, (of ridding from Ghent o’er to Aix), in a place that is void
of light and of space, to be buried like the steeds that were felled in that race.
A sigh, of some relief would be drawn from between my teeth,
which are clenched like my buttocks and are lodged in the saddle
and need to be free of the jiggle and the itch that is causing a chafe
– somewhere between my groin and my knee.
If this battle is won and I've done, a semi halt and a rising trot – without fall …
… ing off -- I will indeed go to Aix…in a car, or a train, or some other, softer,
alternate reality.
Forgot to add the inspiration line and I've fiddled around with some changes..without managing to improve it one jot..hey ho!
How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix by Robert Browning
“I galloped, Dirck galloped, we galloped all three;”
Riding lessons
If only I could ride, I would gallop from Ghent into Aix.
The news will be good. I to claim my fame and with Rolland my steed,
he striding in pride, with me astride ... and my prize:
To look in your eyes and say “Hurrah I’ve learnt how to ride!".
But I gig and jog and flip and flop and my stirrups are not one with me.
And haltingly, with trembling knee I sit on my steed and I pleed,
oh how I should flee, back to the car, back to the bar and then shove
this ridiculous dream, (of ridding from Ghent o’er to Aix), in a place that is void
of light and of space, to be buried like the steeds that were felled in that race.
A sigh, of some relief would be drawn from between my teeth,
which are clenched like my buttocks and are lodged in the saddle
and need to be free of the jiggle and the itch that is causing a chafe
– somewhere between my groin and my knee.
If this battle is won and I've done, a semi halt and a rising trot – without fall …
… ing off -- I will indeed go to Aix…in a car, or a train, or some other, softer,
alternate reality.
Forgot to add the inspiration line and I've fiddled around with some changes..without managing to improve it one jot..hey ho!
How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix by Robert Browning
“I galloped, Dirck galloped, we galloped all three;”