Forgive me if I modestly suggest
A ‘poetry’ moratorium –
I mean that word ‘poetry’
Vacated voluntarily from currency
Among its busy myriad practitioners
Instead it would be pleasantly instructive
Enquiring of passers-by
‘What is it when that phrase occurs –
In praising things quite other as
‘Sheer Poetry’?
‘Pure Poetry’ the cricket match
The ballet yes – and boxing?
Everywhere spectators moved may say
‘Sheer Poetry’ ‘Pure Poetry’
What is it they appreciate?
Electrons quarks vibrating strings
Tinier than atoms cause
Particles and forces to… ‘Hey presto’
Our universe creates itself –
‘String Theory’ – but to some
‘Sheer Poetry’
Others find the best
Modern Poetry is ‘Jazz’
Just as
To others Modern Jazz is as
‘Poetry’
Animals acquire all skill it seems
By ‘direct transmission’ only –
They are fortunate in beauty
While not in the least narcissistic –
The cat sat on the mat
‘Pure Poetry’
Let the ‘Poetry’ cat out of the bag
It is no-one’s domestic cushion
Then praise Apollo that a net has holes
Whole shoals escape –
No mind on earth is greater
Than his dolphins’ E.S.P. in navigation
Wiser than their burden of Arion
Who won fame by his Dionysian
Dithyrambs – then went quite overboard –
It was Apollo’s sacred creatures saved him
So is the printed word of great necessity?
When ‘the poet speaks’
Does an attitude of ‘poet’
Stand in the way of poetry?
As two trains in a station
Does ‘poetry’ hide poetry?
So many men and women
Are sales teams for their poems
Bales are bound each day
In rolling Competitions
For Prizes and attentions
Awards and cash rewards –
They Slam them on the lam
Gangsta style – no lyre –
‘Twinkle twinkle little star’
Are those ‘poetry’s’ intentions?
A target-driven rat-race may emerge
To merely mirror the status quo –
Commodification of wonders
Far removed from joy
As once inspired – so long ago?
‘Wholly Communion’
A Rome of Renaissance Being
To explore this further is to find
Poetry Inscrutable –
Evasive of defining
As human soul itself
It is a mystery cult
To which so many aspire
In which so many expire –
Immortality
Exacting a greater mortality
‘Stoic Philosophers’ meanwhile
Have become another annoyance
Loitering in thoroughfares
Detaining busy citizens
Asking them at length
‘What is the meaning of Meaning?’
Bernard Saint
Illustration: Claire Palmer
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