A Life Of Rhyme

Presenting A Life of Rhyme (2010) by Michael Robinson, published by AuthorHouse—the plucky imprint where muses roll up their sleeves and poets take matters into their own hands. ISBN: 9781452073736. This copy arrives from the gloriously frank emporium Crappy Old Books, graded Condition: Good—meaning the covers are steady, the pages intact, and the only thing dog-eared here is your resolve not to read poetry before breakfast.

What’s inside? A personable parade of poems that treats life as a series of well-timed couplets: love that rhymes with “above” and sometimes “shove,” buses that arrive in tercets, kettles that hiss like sibilants, and the heroic daily epic of finding your keys. Robinson has that affable knack for clean images and tidy turns, the kind that start out as a nod and end up as a nudge—you know, that small shove toward noticing the world before it notices you. These are verses with polished shoes and muddy memories, equal parts sentiment and side-eye, composed in meters that actually keep the beat and metaphors that don’t require high-altitude equipment.

Expect:

• Everyday miracles (tea, rain, supermarkets at 5:43 p.m.) rendered with a mischievous sparkle.

• Courtly odes to unglamorous objects—mugs, bus tickets, a loyal coat—and why they matter more than the moon on Tuesdays.

• A romantic streak that blushes easily but lands the final couplet with a knowing grin.

• Rhyme that behaves (mostly) and rhythm that listens—you can read these aloud without summoning thunder.

• Life lessons in pocket form: keep your umbrella, keep your humour, keep your receipts.

About this particular volume: Good means it’s been opened, enjoyed, and closed again with proper ceremony. The corners are respectable, the spine obliging, the pages clean—no marginal tantrums, no coffee catastrophes, just the faint, honourable aura of previous smiles. It’s the kind of book that fits in a jacket pocket and in a quiet moment, equally at home on a train or next to a lamp that flickers only for effect.

Buy it if you’ve ever:

• Wanted poems that meet you at the bus stop and still invite you dancing.

• Suspected that ordinary days are secretly rehearsing for applause.

• Believed a neat rhyme can be a small act of kindness.

• Needed a five-minute companion that leaves you a touch lighter and a shade wiser.

Why Michael Robinson? Because he writes like someone who knows both where the joke lands and where the ache lives. Why AuthorHouse? Because sometimes the shortest route from heart to page is through a door you open yourself. And why Crappy Old Books? Because behind the cheeky name is a reliable trove of pre-loved treasures—like this Good copy—eager to be read aloud to an empty room that immediately feels fuller.

In short: A Life of Rhyme is a friendly, lightly luminous collection for people who prefer their philosophy line-broken and pocket-sized. Delivered in Good condition from Crappy Old Books, where the only thing “crappy” is your old habit of skipping the poetry section.

Keep browsing: See more Poetry books Other books by Michael Robinson