somewhere else
and came from
somewhere else
but the poetry
which he did not know
called one day
in a language he did not know
so he put down words on paper
and threw the paper away
but the words did not go away
and he did not know what poetry should do
until he wrote the words
which told him
what poetry could do
for only poetry can teach you poetry
*
Gertrude Stein stood behind me while I wrote this.
the heart lights up, so eager to explorethe unknown path that listening may find:obedience, awe, devotion, humblenessall rise to meet the offering of the word,and gently, like new father with his child,tend precious stranger granted to their care.Then silence turns to music in the mindand all too solid words form, black and white;behind the magic…
he’d ‘squired’(that’s the word we use –who wants to hang around the hotel’s staff door all and every night?)every It girl, every starlet, every girl of the moment;and the Valentine cards with foreign stampsjust added to her catch;the press cameras loved him,with that extra button on his open neck shirtundone, under his suit,even when he…
Not a curse upon the house-proudnor a criticising comment on the housekeeper,or retribution for the gap under the front door,or – it it’s blown in from the garden –a hint of early autumn threatening poetic sadnessor a reminder of the fragile evanescence of all thingsit is a whisper from Godwhich has eluded the debris whirling…
oft found just cause to moan of ‘envious Time’,and seek immortal fame in ‘Time defied’;for rhymesters, it is ever June, when moonshines on their corn; for moralists, base lovemay find in Plato reason to attuneand lift their Muse to world on world above –and then, there’s Shakespeare: from whose boundless artflows liquid gold; whose words…
stepping easter-dressed towardswhile Cupid aimed an arrow withoutand hit Chastity of course sincewhile Apollo reached with his wand forand the clouds revealedwhile the golden apples waited withand all the while Love forin the centre of the merry-go-round whenall lovers love tolooking modestly not mary-blue as ifextended a toe delicately in a dance describing howthe blue-with-cold…
the answers will be known.
