Like We are ancient poets, surviving still. I choose to rhyme...And this is what I believe:
 
     I will not create verse that does not communicate.  I will not distort meaning for rhyme, nor obfuscate reader to pose as mysterious or mystical.  I will use poetic devices only to illuminate or enhance, not confuse.

Here is the pledge,  of my compatriots who choose to use rhyme:     We recognize that rhymed words serve in written words to better: 
1.  Aid memory retention
2.  Serve as pronunciation key
3.  Force we poets to think on word meanings.
4.  Enable word music and rhythm.
5.  Motivate vocabulary broadening. 

If you can subscribe to this poetic pledge, send sample and vow to bosacker@aol.com 

 If you resent the popularity of prose posing as poetry, help me in this endeavor. 

       REASONS FOR RHYME
For each fresh new thought, exists the right word,
        each listener taught that each little turd
        by being has wrought a crap loving bird.

That well chosen word, to last for all time,
        most often is stirred by nuance sublime
        with import inferred in flexible rhyme.

CASTING PEARLS!
Sooooeeee, Sooooeeee! It's feeding time.
digest these orbs of nacreous matter,
ignore the fool who made them rhyme.

Don't push, don't shove, don't block the trough,
word choices forced are mindless patter
that meekly earn, your right to scoff.

Cram down, gulp quick, subdue their shine,
each gem will hardly tint your taste
if they are first dissolved in whine.

Porcines decry my rhyme unsung,
its wisdom missed as banal waste,
their music mute, sad bells not rung.

 TO MODERN POETS:
Your meter and rhyme, great learning display
with powerful words, but nothing to say,
so I'm at a loss for what you convey.

Good phrase  sound is an important part

of  word magic so needed  in  poetic art,

but like cold stones, your poem lacks a heart.
 

First step, write plain  what you would speak,

before you search for rhyme, surrender meek

to simple voice, not esoteric Greek.