When you are down or tired and need a snack
There’s nothing quite like toast, and made
In minutes. So you and I need never lack 

The comfort of thick butter, marmalade,
Sharp and tangy - and perhaps laced
With ginger bits. Or with a loving blade,

Spread marmite sparsely: an acquired taste.
But once acquired, like wine, a good
One to return to.  Somethings are wasted
 
On the young. Let them eat bright breadcrumbed food
And we’ll lick our lips as we smell
Our singed bread. Immediately our mood

Is lifted. Under the grill all things are well.
Not just the taste but texture too:
Our toast and tea begins to work its spell.

                                     Somethings are wasted

On the young. Let them eat bright breadcrumbed food
And we’ll lick our lips as we smell
Our singed bread. Immediately our mood

Is lifted. Under the grill all things are well.
Not just the taste but texture too:
Our toast and tea begins to work its spell.

The rest of it came in a bit of a rush. Not sure about singed. 

Spread marmite sparsely: an acquired taste.
But once acquired, like wine, a good
One to return to.  Somethings are wasted

On the young.

What do youngsters, especially the stereotypical ones I have in mind, like to eat? Things deep fried in bright yellow breadcrumbs...

Let them eat bright breadcrumbed food

is amazingly only seven syllables.   And 'mood' will make a good rhyme for the end of the verse.

Spread marmite sparsely: an acquired taste.
But once acquired, like wine, a good
One to return to.  Somethings are wasted

On the young.

Though I know lots of kids do like marmite, I can't resist that line. What does a stereotypical youngster eat? Chicken or fish cooked in lots of bright yellow breadcrumbs. Yum.

 Let them eat bright breadcrumbed food - is only seven syllables, amazingly.

And 'mood will rhyme nicely at the end of the verse.

Here's a start.  A light-hearted meditation on the joys of toast.

When you are down or tired and need a snack
There’s nothing quite like toast, and made
In minutes. So you and I need never lack 

The ---something something--- marmalade,
Sharp and tangy:
----------- Or with a loving blade,

Spread marmite sparsely: an acquired taste.

I've got some ideas for rhymes with taste but must guard against letting rhyme run away with the meaning, as ever!

A new year and a new form. I was scanning through a glossary of poetic forms and came across this one, which I have never tried. So, as a way of getting out of the post-New Year slump, here's my first attempt.

I’ll try a new poetic form: terza
Rima, where the first line rhymes with the third
And the second line with the first

Line of the following verse, the word
Should not be too hard to rhyme or else
You’re stuck - and end up coping with absurd

Statements or sentiments which tell
A story quite unlike the one you had
In mind. You could, you see, end up in hell

Just because it rhymes!  The rhythm adds
Another layer of fun: iambic pen-
Tameter’s what should be used. But it’s not bad

To vary it. In fact, I fancy when
I get the chance to make this line
Shorter. But this one will still add to ten.

I see why this form was used in past times
To tell long tales. It’s hard to stop;
But I will now. That’s quite enough. Yes. Fine.

I don’t know how it happens, but this form (compared to sonnets, for example) produces a different kind of pressure. Not stress, exactly, but certainly a demand on one’s brain different to that of writing freer verse.  I tend to think this kind of pressure is positive.  Things shouldn’t come too easily.  Of course, as I’ve noted elsewhere, free verse can be very hard to get right: the freedom is sometimes harder to manage than a structure.   But you don’t know what might suit you (or your subject matter) till you try.