When we wrought this ship from iron,

we made an anchor out of clay,

strung it with broken links like paperclips,

lowered it down below the ocean spray,

certain that it would snap,

would shatter, break, or fail,

that we would sink and slip away

before the anchor fell.

Instead it found a mooring,

held fast against the waves,

and we were forced to realise

this might not be a matter of days,

or months or even years,

this could string on for life

and this tether made of paperclips

might prove to be just right.

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I’ve tried to play around with rhyme in this catch up poem for yesterday’s NaPoWriMo prompt so I’d love to hear your thoughts on how it’s worked. I don’t normally like trying to work rhyme into poems because it too often feels forced by the poets and the poem becomes about the rhyme scheme rather than the story. Therefore, honest, constructive criticism will be greatly valued.

Also, in case you missed it. The phrase I picked to go with NaPoWriMo’s challenge to turn a familiar phrase on its head was ‘A chain is only as strong as its weakest link’.