What Poetry Cannot Do

 

 

Poetry cannot do the laundry.
It cannot make dinner for your children.
It refuses to clean toilets
or windows or vacuum those tight corners
where dust accumulates
faster than a verse.

Poetry cannot wash your dishes.
It cannot telephone
long neglected friends
or make dates for coffee

It refuses to walk your dog.
even on dark and rainy days
when inspiration drips from every cloud.

Poetry wants nothing to do
with writing business plans
or doing taxes or scheduling
dentist appointments.

It certainly is of no use
in getting your children
to school on time.

Poetry yawns in the face of obligation.
That is not to say it has no needs.
It asks for simple things
and things not easily acquired.

solitude.
a fine glass of wine.
a comfortable chair.
an open mind.
someone to love it.

Reviews

[Touché Armada]

Poetry is the quiet moments in the day that collate the confusion and discord.
Fortifies the love in ones heart, and waters the dry springs that withered in hurt.
poetry is a personal affirmation, a strength in weakness and light in darkness as pitch as coal in a dark mine of helplessness, searching for things sometimes we don't even know.

Poetry is a kindness to self when no one else understands a personal moment, we hide you scream at the top of our lungs.
Write/right on =)

[Siddartha Beth Pierce]

Wonderful! The ending is quite superb. Great expression - it certainly can not do those things but I love how you captured those things in your poem...well done! Thank you.
Light,
Siddartha

[Jenny Davis]

Ohhh yess!!! This is perfect poetry...I wasn't doing any of those things while reading this...but the wine, the chair, the open mind and the love...you bet! Great piece :)

[Just Manoosh]

How fabulous..... what a wonderful way to say poetry can never be the mundane.

I love the last stanza, the words and execution are perfectly said.

solitude.
a fine glass of wine.
a comfortable chair.
an open mind.
someone to love it.

Mx

[TL Boehm]

Oh this is going in my favorites. I am often found lamenting those things that never get done because poetry is chewing on my frontal lobe....such an excellent write - thank you to Emily for sending this one my way

[J. Hampton]

Love the view...

Poetry
is
personal
perception

~ it is intimate...and so much more than all the trifling ....day to day necessaries..!

"Poetry yawns in the face of obligation.
That is not to say it has no needs.
It asks for simple things
and things not easily acquired.

solitude.
a fine glass of wine.
a comfortable chair.
an open mind.
someone to love it."

(( my fav stanzas ))

Blesssssssssssssssssssssssssssss

[R J Askew]

Lovely stuff. There are times when I hate the word 'poetry' it just feels embarrassing to have anything to do with it, the opposite of active and action. But at other times it seems the most exciting thing there is.

[Fabian G. Franklin]

Poetry can give us a place to belong and express ourselves if only to ourselves. It can give meaning and a voice to our lives. I think without poetry I would rather be dead because all the music would be gone from life and that has bore my burdens, sorrows, hopes and joys all my life. Poetry sang my child to sleep and played over the radio as I did the housework, I even sing when I walk the dog. So while poetry may not do these things you say, it gives me the will to do them. Birthdays and holidays are remembered with verse in cards we send to family, neighbors and friends letting them know they are in our thoughts and that we care. And every prayer to God, if it comes from the heart, is a poem. I thank you for writing this if only for giving me the chance to review it. Blessings of peace and love.

[Emily B]

Oh, this is perfect! I found something resembling me. I let my children cook their own dinner. Poetry is always more important. This is definitely a new favorite!

[THE BLACK SEAL]

this is beautifully done and very good way to express the realities that face we who wish to be doing other things like playing with words