We Are Poets

A celebration of writers and poetry

From where within my soul is it found?
A beautiful verse in rhyming round. 
With zealous search, eyes closed, heads reclined, 
in silence, mouthing words we choose to refine.

 

Being the antitype of many who walk on this earth, 
poets pen our thoughts by weighing a words worth. 
Writing what we mean and meaning what we write, 
we use our intellect alone and not our fists to fight.

 

Whether we write of love found or that of scorn,
maybe we will pen words of a death to mourn. 
Never the matter of what topic we compose, 
it's for certain that our thoughts we impose.

 

For some are blessed with many musical skills,
still others who can calculate telephone bills. 
But it is we who are given the greatest of ability -
that of communicating all of life’s complexity.

 

You may think that for hours we might labor,
only to write simple words upon some paper. 
One might even be so emboldened to inquire:
“Poet, of where do you think your work is required?”

 

In resounding triumph you would hear us sing:
Our words ended battles as well as humored kings.
We have lifted spirits and spread good cheer; 
some of us have brought an end to political careers.

 

So there good man, our labor has not been in vain.
Know this, that our poems will echo with refrain.
Writing our thoughts daily, we faithfully pen;
being poets before statesmen, we get the last word in.

Reviews

[Emily Elizabeth]

This is the poem to end all poems! A fantastic write! The concept of this is just inspired! You've written it so beautifully and with such a fine, eloquent touch as well. It flows wonderfully throughout. Thanks so much for sharing. I especially loved his verse:

'With resounding proclaim you would hear us sing;
Our words ended battles as well as humored kings;
We have lifted others spirits and spread good cheer;
A few of us have even ended several political careers.'

Long live poetry! :D

[Norma J. Jessee]

Written from the heart of a true poet.

" From where within my soul shall it be found? " These words are so true, for poetry comes from deep within our soul, it reaches down to depths so deep that sometimes even we aren't aware they are there.
Very well written, each word penned with love. A great inspiration and tribute for poets everywhere.
I love it and it's going into my fav's
Jean

[Fabian G. Franklin]

Here's to the last word! Loved this. You know, of course, you can rhyme that line that slips away into free style there? Watch this. "But it is we who are given the greatest ability. To weave magic from words with skill and agility." lol Love it just the way you wrote it though. Great.

[Liddie Martinez]

One of my favorite pieces. You are an exceptional writer, my friend. It's better every time I read it! Lid

[Poetic82]

How precious. Okay, yes I llloovvee this poem, and you are right, poets are misunderstood. They either love us or they mistake our worth, one thing is true we cannot be overlooked. I loved the flow and the sentiment behind the words. My fellow poet, lover of words and all things rhythmic. We must come together and remind the world why we are necessary. Imagine how much a better place the world would be if people fought with the pen than the sword...Great job!!!

[Emily Rose]

This is an inspiring poem about poets! I like it when poets write about poetry - they know the subject best after all, so it's a great topic and you do a good job with it. As usual, I have a few punctuation issues to point out, but first I must question your usage: in one of the lines you say "Or maybe we shall pen prose of a death to mourn;" This doesn't make much sense in a poem about poetry. "Prose" refers to writing that is NOT poetry i.e. books, essays, etc. Thus, I think the word doesn't really belong in this poem, since it's all about poets and poetry. Also in the second to last stanza you say "With resounding proclaim." "Proclaim" is a transitive verb and not a noun, so you're going to need to pick a different word there to have the sentence make sense. "With resounding triumph" perhaps. Something like that, but it must be a noun. The rhythm seems a little off, too - it seems that you can't really decide on a set rhythm. This wouldn't be worth a mention (to me, anyway) if the poem didn't adhere to such a rigid rhyme scheme. Usually poems of this sort, the kind that are rhyme-driven, also adhere to a pretty strict meter as well, and you start in a set rhythm and then deviate freely from it in the rest of the poem. You may want to edit some of the lines a little :-)

Okay, on to the punctuation. As usual, I think a bunch of your semicolons could be changed into commas, colons and dashes. There are a bunch of places where a semicolon isn't really allowed either: semicolons separate two independent clauses (i.e. two complete ideas). Thus, a semicolon won't work between these lines "Zealously we search, closed eyes, heads reclined;/Silently mouthing the words we choose to refine" because the second line isn't a complete sentence. You could tweak like this, so it is: "Silently we mouth the words we choose to refine" but it would be much easier to simply change the semicolon to a comma. It gets visually and rhythmically tiresome for the reader to have to deal with all those semicolons, so I say mix it up!

There are also a few places were punctuation should be added in: there should be a comma after "alone" in this line: "We use our intellect alone and not our fists to fight." (

[fireblossom]

Great poem. Encouraging to this poet. Giving value to lonely times pressed by the need to express.

This has a very classic (timeless) feel to it. Your choice of words and phrases will keep this poem current.

Well done.

[Leah Simone]

the couplets ring with rhyme and fall into a metered time - I think you said it well in singsong fashion - with a poet's passion for expressing his or her self that refuses to sit upon the shelf collecting dust instead of eyes - if never read a poem dies.

[Promiss]

I really love this poem.

[Ebs]

I'm not sure what to say.
It's amazing!!
but i'm not sure amazing does this poem any justice. It is wonderfully written. It gives a good, well rounded idea of a poet. I usually don't like rhyming in poems anymore but this one it helped it to flow better. It was a nice change from lots of poem I've read/written before. The words are deep and each word there for a purpose. Nothing feels in there just because you couldn't think of anything else.
Great work!!
Superb

ebs

[Tony]

Really, I am quite impressed! Such gravity in so few words! I am immediately, for some reason, reminded of those who are so quick to make fun of what we do. I suffer none of that here in the Cafe!
Well said, Mr.!! I am pouring a drink as I write.