The Unknown Poet Whoever said “Poetry is the release Of accumulated misery” Is only half right, And may have been reading The attempted poems of the very young— The kinds of poets who look out at the whiteness Of a winter’s blizzard And see only themselves in it— Dripping in the sweet syrup Of sentimentality Or the acrid wit of cynicism— Those who see nothing Of the numinous Snowscape of the Soul. And yet, there are those, like Whitman Who release accumulations Of miseries— so overflowing And so pointedly personal They pour forth into the future as if to wake us from our sleep: “You there, you holding me in your hands, right now, I see you!” I blush, for my naiveté… Fluent in the language of pain He wrote words Translating The wounds of those Who tried to soldier on In the war of brother against brother He read those un-mailed letters home and un-finished poems In the un-quiet wards of the city Of men who lost their words Like blood on snow… Those un-recognized poets Who created works of art never seen To any, but him.
Share this post
The Unknown Poet
Share this post
The Unknown Poet Whoever said “Poetry is the release Of accumulated misery” Is only half right, And may have been reading The attempted poems of the very young— The kinds of poets who look out at the whiteness Of a winter’s blizzard And see only themselves in it— Dripping in the sweet syrup Of sentimentality Or the acrid wit of cynicism— Those who see nothing Of the numinous Snowscape of the Soul. And yet, there are those, like Whitman Who release accumulations Of miseries— so overflowing And so pointedly personal They pour forth into the future as if to wake us from our sleep: “You there, you holding me in your hands, right now, I see you!” I blush, for my naiveté… Fluent in the language of pain He wrote words Translating The wounds of those Who tried to soldier on In the war of brother against brother He read those un-mailed letters home and un-finished poems In the un-quiet wards of the city Of men who lost their words Like blood on snow… Those un-recognized poets Who created works of art never seen To any, but him.