the well-wrought verse: a poetics

Ut pictura poesis:
The definition, Horace's;
Splash of words across a page
in shades of passion, awe, or rage.

Other times a poem may be
the delicate web of spider's silk
that captures any thought
unlucky to get trapped
in the muse's orb

Reflected in tranquility

A well-wrought verse is
Like a haiku etched in air,
Poet's soul in flight.

A poem should not mean
but be
ink flowing like life's blood
a record of the here that did not
exist a moment ago
roadmap to the mystery
of what it is to love
of what it is to grieve
of what it is to LIVE

resolved, at last,
the question unasked

Poems should be written rarely and reluctantly,
should make lovers weep,
and critics swoon.

But, most of all,
a poem
is
the thing you write,
not
because you want to,
but
because you must.

sensitivity

anesthesia is best left to experts;
but numbing oneself to
the desired degree
of indifference
requires no prior experience --
only a large enough glass.

hyper poem

technology has redefined
"new skins for the color blind"
but old skins for the fully sighted
are still mainly blacked and whited

a day in the life

sitting in an English garden,
nibbling cellophane flowers
of yellow and green,
she turned to me and said
"I am the walrus,"
(but everyone knew her as nancy)