About 2 years ago my daughter, who is also a writer, challenged me to a duel, to write one poem a day for the month of July. At first, I thought, how the hell am I gonna do that? But after thinking about it for a while, I started to become intrigued by the idea, and jumped in both guns blazing, so to speak.
The following 4 poems are from different points in the process….hence the numbers. If you like writing poetry, you might want to give yourself a challenge like this. It’s a great mental exercise.
I have been writing poetry all of my adult life. Most of them are in highly structured lyric forms, a lesser number are blank verse. But for me, they are all part of the joyful noise that seeps out of me every now and then.
- I USED TO BE A POET
I used to be a poet
Way back in the day
Long before the sleek
Looking machinery
That manufactures words
At the speed of light
Was even dreamt of
I used to be a poet
When words were measured
Carefully and thoughtfully
When love and passion
Dripped from every one
Like honey from some
Overachieving beehive
I used to be a poet
When I could make
Subconscious thoughts
Churn and bubble
A witches cauldron
Of fear and anger
Of anxiety and longing
For everything from justice
to a good old fashioned fuck
I used to be a poet
When everything was cool
And everyone could seek & find
The deeper meaning
When inflections were like chords
That no one had played before
And they were so rich
And strange and full of the unknown
I used to be a poet
When my mind was free to wander
And I was always invited to
Tag along, taking notes
And shaping them into
Little anthems to whatever
Was going on, going strong
Going right, going wrong
Going, going, gone
I used to be poet
But nowadays
I have to reach way back
To find those things
That came so easily
Those thoughts that would drift
On the tide of all that I
Was so connected to
When I used to be a poet
9. I DIED A FEW YEARS BACK
I died a few years back
But I was too stubborn
To crawl off into infinity
Still had shit to do
People to piss off
Poems to write
Lies to spread
Truths to tell
Rumours to spin
Still on a mission from God
Even though I lost my religion
Way back in the last century
I died a few years back
I just never got the memo
I’ve always been clueless that way
Still have hearts and minds to conquer
Suburban streets to explore
Memories to make
Even if they’re cloudy and grey
Still on a mission from God
With orders written in Sandskrit
On second century papyrus
God was a lot more real back then
People weren’t stupid or ignorant
Just loyal I think
I died a few years back
It was in my sleep
I die a lot there, almost every night
But I’m soldiering on
On into the next misadventure
In my own private reality show
Always on a mission from God
Trying to figure out how
To keep the world from imploding
Under the monumental weight
Of its own bullshit
I died a few years back
But then again, maybe not
Who really knows for sure?
