The serious thing about poetry

The serious thing about poetry

Is the 'serious thing about poetry'

It is not in the writing but the reading

We define it!

We who did not write it

Or know the serious thing about poetry

Is in the 'business of writing'

In the silent inflections and reflections

In the silence

Just the silence

And the space

And the writer

Writing

First feeling

First breathing

First yet not first

Then recalling

In diary

On dictaphone

While alone

In a crowd

In a park

Round the back of the track of

The old garden, where you used to play

Taking your time

Walking the long way home

With your head full of books

Your book, full of thoughts

And the serious business

Yes the serious business of 'Art'

In the making...

Making or a name?

The serious thing remains

Afterward untouched

Always the same

After the awards

They all went home

And some hung their OSCARS in the loo

And some feeling foolish hung their heads in shame

For the sake of the art

For arts sake

Finding still trying to find whose to blame?

yvette m smith 7.2.09

poem by Yvette Smith
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!