#728 - every poem is subtly different

 

30.xii.21

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every poem is subtly different

 

pay attention, nothing prepares you

 

may have flown a thousand times

never soared before

 

there must be music, tricks in

not what you first thought

a poem bends, over time, to the reader’s will

 

some give blood

the gratuitous shock

or ought to

in the canon’s maw

 

full of wishes

and the dog dragged in

 

here’s one

built by the ramshackle method

else through careful calculation

 

some written for a lark

then so serious they hurt

 

another head turns

one more heart throws

every machine needs a rest

 

and the poem, no exception

lies in the between-lines

lick a finger, turn the page

 

some feel that they must have dreamt it

many have been before

 

hold breath down here

up dizzy with heights

 

some poems are stamped ‘if when’

and many why

 

built stand alone

they come for a punt

and ‘open this suitcase please’

 

things trapped in the wild

released safely hic et

 

run always on more than one track

fun creatures

thoughtless at times

 

rhyme handles

waves to ride

 

they grow by verses to fill a page

and spill the mind

then another poem’s elected

it climbs the graph to fall

 

of all the monsters I have made!

scenes of wild cohabitation!

breathless behind closed covers

 

you just have to have been here

levers and pulleys, lubricating spray

 

pay no attention to that one

behind the curtains

nor the little wizard barking

who really runs the show

 

you won’t always hear the landing gear –

that provides frisson

one comes to the sunshine so

someone somewhere is listening

(it's their own voice too)

that’s all I need just now