#973 - poetry begins

 

973

poetry begins

 

where we are

for instance here today in Finland

where the sun is turning its way

so it seems

 

it’s look again

where you hadn’t seen

 

the sinking barns

the stubble fields

just past summer now

 

neat lawns where the snow

will lie under birches

and here comes the robot mower

neat lines in leaves of grass!

 

a poem begins

where the heart strikes

where the head spins

aliens will always land

you may ask any insect

 

think of poetry as a secret weapon

it fills the available space

and drives away devils

 

for instance, across the border

the monster would like us for slaves

(it’s just how monsters are, you know)

tug at your sleeve for attention

they sing the monster’s anthem

 

wake up!

feel the thing!

 

the poem where the bullet would otherwise lodge

see it bud up, flower

 

it’s muck about for relevance

the poem is time taken back

from where you’d been tricked

 

we watch the arrow stop mid-air

 

pull at the end of this

is it smoke or steam?

 

It’s us!

we’re all song and dance

on the damp mouldy crust

of our fireball home

hurtling as ever

 

there are flames from the ears

everyone’s still in pyjamas

 

and breathless for the act of love

that comes when a poem begins