I’ll Never Be A Poet

A year ago Irene Toh of Singapore and I traded poems back and forth for a month, an exercise in poetic dialogue.  Poetry is a language.  You can't just say anything in any way.  There are formalisms that must be met, if only distantly.  Even free verse is not that free.  That said, the talent for poetic language is not that difficult to muster at its minimums and most people can write a passable poem or two if only they beleive they can and try.  It is another thing to pump out thirty poems in thirty days.

See Getting Back Together at Orange Is A Fruit

This is why these days there are many poet sites on line.  They gather poet communities, dozens and even hundreds of poets in the largest ones.  The main thing at these sites is a periodic poetry suggestion or prompt of some kind to assist the participants with poem production.

I’ll Never Be A Poet

I can’t even start.

I need more light than I have
and more grit as well
if I am to say
what it is that wakes me up.

You say the trances
take you and I guess
that’s what we should say happens.
It would be better
if unicorns grazed
in our nearby city parks
calling to the bold
in us to approach,
to mount, and then ride after
our retreating dreams.

May 5, 2014 3:11 PM