An Ode to the Four Easy Guitar Chords (A Minor, E Minor, G, C)

For the three years I've been at my school, we've done a poetry unit around the March-April time frame.  It's like the English teachers notice the spring buds poking up and are suddenly rendered unable to communicate in any manner but through the words of Walt Whitman and Robert Frost.

Although the Poetry Unit does involve a great deal of shredding dismal poems into little pieces and drinking their lifeblood until their meaning is condensed into a single thematic statement, one of its saving graces is that we, as the students, occasionally get to write our own poetry.  Last year, our poem had to include be about a struggle and had to include a metaphor.  I already had a really great idea that I was hoping to submit, but it had no struggle and no metaphor.  So, I wrote a poem with a struggle and a metaphor about how I was mad that we had to write a poem with a struggle and a metaphor.

This year, we got to write odes.  A metaphor was preferred, but not required.  The English teacher encouraged us to make a list of subjects and choose one to write an ode about.  Here is my list, as it is appears in my notebook:

peanut butter
Great Dane paws
the bassline in City of Delusion
old bendy pointe shoes that are basically technique shoes
the four easy guitar chords (Eb, Ab, C, G)
Legolas
(in)decisiveness

I wrote my poem with gusto and ended up reading it aloud in class.  This was an uncomfortable experience in which I learned, not for the first time, that the things I write sound a lot funnier in my head than they do out loud.  Please don't take this seriously.


Ode to the Four Easy Guitar Chords (A Minor, E Minor, G, and C)

My brother taught me four chords
To play on the guitar
As colors for an artist
Four chords to be a star

I practiced, to my credit-
My fingertips turned raw
Four chords, and that would do it-
My plan had not a flaw.

My first chord was A minor
A punk rock rebel’s sound
More easy was E minor
My feet had left the ground

I proudly left the minors
No minor league was I
For I could shred G major
I could play Otherside

I battled with the fretboard
And cried out “Victory,
I am the best musician!”
For I could now play C

Matt Bellamy jams with me
I’m modern Malcolm Young
So put me on MTV
Splendid four chords I strum


It could use some work.  I would have included the lines "I have no need for lessons/lessons have need for me", but the only thing that rhymes with lessons is "lessens" and I wasn't ~feeling that vibe~.  I repeat: please don't take it seriously.

World peace and love,
Heather <3