IT'S NOT WHAT YOU THINK

Poetry isn’t poems

poetry is wisdom, insight,

and depth of thought, poetry

is a finger in your face, and a

gate to fantasy. Poetry is a

ten line novel to rival

War and Peace, it is ghostly

and will haunt your dreams.

I once saw a a cross-country

runner who was a poem, long

legs reaching out like pistons,

a symmetry of movement and

grace, her eyes resolute: but to

tell you more of this Athena,

I’d be just an artist painting

sunsets that cannot measure up.

I watched a field where men were

poems clad in blue jeans and plaid,

silent they were, following a tractor

hauling hay, they bent and lifted

then threw forty pound bales to be

stacked just so. Men sweating in

the heat, and at noon laugh around

a table laden with Mama’s feast.

I’ve watched my father drop a tear

in nineteen sixty-three when the

presidential caisson rolled slow

through the sunshine in a time

when powerful people still had the

concepts of “nobility,” and “shame”

tattooed on their souls. A poem

to melt my bones even now.

I watched an old-man love poem

look into his lover’s eyes there in

her rocking chair, one hand on her

shoulder, the other on her arm, then

bend to kiss her upturned lips soft

and deep, because of sixty-five years

with her. He stood wearing a dry smile

steeped in the dignity of manhood.

Poetry is a reminder to be

mindful, brave, strong, and kind.

It commands shock at ignorance and

evil in this futile world of sensory

overload where our nerves overrule our

hearts and emotions determine logic.

Poetry says to stop, take deep breaths,

look all around, and walk in beauty.

Reviews

[Lorry]

I especially like how you ended this Vol. It l, to my mind at least, is a way to say to those trolls, or illiterate wannabe poets as I think of them, YOU MAMA! 😊
To the critics, who tell what they think you should have done, while all the while, spouting nothing but the love of their own voice... YOU MAMA!
Poetry is the thought that begin you writing this piece. The word or phrase that tickled your thoughts enough to jot it down and wait for the mouse's fair hand to inspire the journey you would take together.
It is our attempts to describe in words things usually only felt, deeply enough, no matter its subject.
Poetry is all these things and more.
As your title suggests, it is not what you think, it is how you feel!

[Vol]

Lorry!
Thank you... I did not intend the double entendre, but thank you for pointing it out! It is what I love most about poetry... Sure, what comes in the front door is fine, but the bits that sneak in from the back, or side transport me to exactly where I want to be...
Vol

[Keagen Cole]

I honestly cannot put into words how this poem touches me. I understand what it's like to be able to see poems from a real, yet histrionic perspective. To this, I say "Pulchritudinous!"

[Vol]

Keagen,
Hahahaha! I must refer you to Winston Churchill,"Short words are best, and old words when short are best of all.”
Vol

[Vol]

Oh, and thank you very much...

[Keagen Cole]

Anytime. And thanks for the quote. ;)

[Stella Armour]

To so many of us Vol poetry is the only way of expressing our emotions at the things we see and feel .

Only other poets will relate to this... and will be nodding with an understanding smile ....
We are a breed apart ... Strange some may say , but within our own circle we are always at home ..

[Vol]

Stella,
It is true! I have felt myself to be a little apart sitting as an observer, trying to understand what I see. I think all true artists do. Most of us function just fine outside the circle.

[Stella Armour]

Ah yes we do function outside the circle ..... it is what is inside the circle that others just don't understand lol...

[Arundass TP]

Interesting line's. Like a dream you expressed each lines. Nice poem

[Ken Simm.]

Poetry is art and can be life. Nuff said. I love this my friend.

[Vol]

Ken,
Thanks for taking notice. I probably posted it before it was fully baked, and will spend a little time editing this one.
Vol