#595 - poetry is a way of life

 

19.viii.21

595

2.230

poetry is a way of life

 

now in full flower

long of rhyme

with the backbeat you’ll miss

 

I have lived here for many years

and never wake up to the same world

I keep a day spare in my pocket for luck

 

you can believe what you like

 

way

truth

light

 

these are all things made up as we go

 

out of sight out of mind

that’s where I’ve been

imagine!

it’s the place where we find ourselves

and I can picture you there

 

nor is there art without the risk

 

it’s go where no one …

they’re all cheering me on

(poetry has side lines

… a day job… all time is stolen)

 

no can longer I think of another way to be

 

so I’m famous to myself now

(this is just a cover version)

it’s in all these words we’re gone

 

poetry is a kind of breathing practice

a breathlessness too

 

stand high above, wallow in

 

by word of mouth

hearts break

mend again

(a kind of ‘Simon says’)

 

deep down

and skim

 

in and between words

always in translation

 

poetry drapes over days

for a question

lead to another

 

answer’s no good

go again

 

by word of mouth

on paper too

 

no tip toe dip toe in for me

I simply have to swim

 

I myself am a state withered away

the planet, note, tilts

and goes on

the word is a permanent revolution

 

we have seen these dangerous ideas

we crushed them before

we will crush them again

 

under the dunce’s cap

I’m writing it out in my book

lines of must not, cannot, won’t

love me, forget me, come back again

 

I do it on the merest whim

I’ve been doing it for a while

 

you there, on the slippery throne

gilt flaking like dandruff

 

please judge me by my style