Things for Which the Poet was Looking–an exercise in poetry

I had a banner day yesterday, and I even got time to go through the archives some last night and put some things in the queue. There are 47 things there now, in case you’re wondering. Recently, a friend told me, when it comes to writing, things don’t seem the same to everyone. That was something I already knew; the question is, being a writer, do I care? Should I care?

Certainly, I want as many people to like what I write, or take something from it as possible, but if I get hung up on that, I don’t know if I’ll ever get anything done.

This one is not for everyone, but,for those few that it is for, it has the potential to really resonate. Gotta love you fellow word geeks.

Be well.

***

“Things for Which The Poet Was Looking”

 

A man traipses across the page with a pen.

He is conscious of the alliteration attained

through the repetition of letters,

the p being one of the 26 at his command.

He is looking for reasons to use good words,

yummy words, like “traipse” or “haughty.”

He knows he will find them.

 

From some hidden stereo

in the recesses of his mind comes

the agonizing sound

of Yoko Ono’s

voice on vinyl,

which sometimes comes out “vynil”

on the page before cleaning.

Okay, Yoko, I got ya.

So, you’re walking on thin ice, eh?

Jeez, but can’t it break soon?

The album has a skip in it,

and Yoko does nothing

but repeat this phrase

over and over and over…

 

His gait is that of a liver-weak drunk

waking in a strange house in the dark.

Still, he has an idea

about the path that lies ahead.

No, the house is foreign;

he’s never been here before,

but he has walked through

many near replicas of it,

one of which he found

in a Stephen Wright routine.

 

Occasionally his cautious yet haughty foot

pushes up against something unexpected,

or his manic shin barks against something

for which he has forgotten he was looking.

He smiles.

Maybe it’s a word like “haughty,”

or perhaps it’s the idea

of the sensation

of a Yoko Ono song.

Whatever it is,

he knows he’ll be able to use it,

that it wouldn’t have presented itself

had all of the elements not have been in place

for such to occur.

T.S. Eliot told him

to expect as much.