The True Poets

A New Year Dawns by Wendy / Flickr user smkybear The true poets, seeing the world in a grain of sand, do not ask Why then so many grains of sand?

The true poets lie once then spend the rest of their lives shoring up the lie.

The true poets hum along with themselves, visiting in drafty castles, hunched over stone tables all night while the wind whistles through faulty windows, thinking themselves so very clever.

The true poets, despairing of meaning, wrestle with sentences; despairing of words, contend with syllables and are overcome.

The true poets do not agree with sharks and worms, they think the world is too much with us, they lie in bed at night fully clothed but never sleepwalk, they sleep deeply instead, fail to howl at the moon, and wake with rumpled shirts, fully rested.

The true poets spout the future’s clichés and die never knowing their true worth, never knowing it even after they have been dead a hundred years.

The true poets plot getting from here to anyplace but jump ship en route from Mexico without waiting for landfall, vanish into the dark swollen sea that undergirds the world and live forever.

The true poets, good for nothing, win the Nobel Prize in their dreams, wake to scrambled eggs toast and coffee, wishing for marmalade.

The true poets are patrons of failure put to the truth of others.

Continue reading

Alphabet, Schmalphabet – Z, z

fly_1894_ii_a_205g1Zachary Zye, the loud­-buzzing black fly,
Zipped into the house in the blink of an eye.

Inside he discovered Old Man Ebenezer
Noisily snoozing, the crusty old geezer,
With his head on the bed and his feet in the freezer.

Now one thing is true of a fly with a buzz:
If that fly sees you sleeping, the first thing he does
Is to buzz in your ear. Why is that? Well… because.

So Zachary flew to the old geezer’s bed
Landed once on his chin—circled twice ‘round his head—
And then BUZZED IN HIS EAR! fit to wake up the dead.

But Old Man Ebenezer kept snoring instead.

An insult like that would make any fly sore.
I’ll wake him! cried Zachary Zye with a roar.
(If you heard it, you might think his roar was a buzz
And to tell you the truth, I suppose that it was.)

He buzzed on the old geezer’s feet (they were smelly)
And the back of his neck and the front of his belly.
He buzzed in his nose and he buzzed in his hair
He buzzed around here, and he even buzzed there.

He buzzed every place he could think of, and more.
He buzzed and he buzzed till his buzzer was sore.
But Old Man Ebenezer just lay there ­­ and snored.

So Zachary Zye, the loud-­buzzing black fly,
Zipped out of the house… with a tear in his eye.

Continue reading

Alphabet, Schmalphabet – X, x

Found Photo - Circa 1900Xavier’s vexing X­-ray eyes
Would certainly make him an excellent spy.

He’s a wizard at poker and hide­-and­-go­-seek;
He can tell what a squirrel has stuffed in its cheek;
He can locate the needle in any haystack;
He knows what you’re hiding there, behind your back.

And he sees lots of things that he isn’t supposed…
But I’d better not say any more about those.

Continue reading

The Dwarf Bids Farewell to His Wife, the Elephant Lady, Citing Their Sexual Incompatibility

Dolly Dimple + DwarfOne ought not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediment.  But then again,
Let us be reasonable, dear.  I find,
Though minds be true, still bodies may present

Some difficulties – and, in point of fact,
Impediments there are, though you admit
Them not. Let’s not mince words: putting all tact
Aside, we both are freaks: I am a midget;

You, my love, are grossly fat.  That’s just
The way of it, there is no blame.  However,
After all our trials, I think you must
Admit some things just can’t be done, whatever

Minds may think of it.  With this in view,
My body’s left you, though my mind’s still true.

 

Reassurance

gargoyles by Henri SaarikoskiOh do not mind me if I stare
My staring eyes are blind;
And too I prey on wicked folk
So you need pay no mind.

Continue reading

Persuasion

Abeja by Vero VillaPlease stay!
Cried the daisies
In their summer guise.

But the bee
Persuaded me
To do otherwise.

Continue reading

Against Order

domes over bridgeThe arches found the city which the river underlies.
The tall cathedral towers are aspiring to the skies.

We would all be very happy in that geometric land
Some above and some below, but each according to a plan.

The rich are the deserving and the poor accept their lot
And the rich have mausoleums and the poor will get a plot.
Meanwhile, what symmetry and balance we have bought!

Did anybody notice that the pieces fit so neatly
You could jumble up the city once and fill it in completely?
You could jumble up the city like a set of building blocks
Collect them when they’ve fallen and return them to their box.

Continue reading

The Gargoyle Repudiates Religion

451571910_f11579595c_bNo mere cathedral is complete
for all it has a floor, walls, and a roof.

Behind me! — I would see
the world just as it is in truth.

I turn my ass toward faith,
toward teachings without proof.

Believe You Me

tumblr_n3kn0xx6gz1qzix81o1_400

Always on time, is something I’m.
Always seemly, yes, extremely.
And polite? Oh, very, quite.

Don’t crack knuckles, won’t stamp feet.
My room, my handwriting, both are neat.

Never cry unless I’m hurt.
Never ask for more dessert.

Tie my shoes before I’m told.
Eat my food before it’s cold.
Respect old people ‘cause they’re old.

Ever lie? Oh, no – not I!

Continue reading

The Lost Child

single grave 5 by Don (Flickr user fallingwater123)Little one, what have you heard, and how?

That grave-stones cluster on the hill’s cold brow
and wanderers are lost without a sound
beneath the moon, when the hard winds blow.
I hid here in the grass, and hide here now.

Little one, what have you seen, and where?

The dead and deathless wail upon the air;
the living will not go abroad for fear,
but build their fires up high, and sit, and stare
into the dark. I have been there.

Little one, what meaning do you find?

I wish to live, to live! Death is not kind.
The dying do not leave this world behind.

Continue reading