sneaking up on inspiration

here she comes again,

wandering the cafe

on moondream nights,

entreating the young poets

 

poems should not mean,

but be

 

she smiles and nods

coyly

as if she thought of it herself

 

and grins

at the distinguished gentleman

all alone in the corner,

he scribbles harder

on his napkin

and she floats along

intent on asking

no one in particular

 

but what does the poem do?

 

the school girls giggle a little

at the spectacle

content with their cunning words

 

and the modern, young poet

extemporizes on the quality of language

and the art of knowing

and she stops and leans forward

just as if she was telling

the most important secret

 

don't carry crosses you never met

tell your own story

 

the artist smiles a little,

paints a picture in his mind

of words meeting metal

as she searches still for a muse

that will lead her by the hand

and dance her home

Author's Note

foolishness, laughing at my own foolishness

Reviews

[TamiViolet]

beautiful and heartfelt, Emily although I can't help but wonder where you acquired the words for this one... :-) 'poems should not mean,/ but be'... love it!!! And how true, for poetry is definitely not genre of exact science where 2+2=4. Creativity shows no bounds.... I could envision an experienced poet leading home one who has lost her way... Love it.

[Emily B]

Archibald MacLeish wrote in "Ars Poetica" a poem should not mean, but be . . . I wish I had been there to think of it before.

[Jeff Loquist]

some women just have that way about them

[Chris Smith Welshpoetcs]

A lovely flirtation of poetry ; )