Poetry that Matters

Here's someone's take on poetry making -- making it matter.  Tom Keene recently gave the Sunday morning talk at the UU church I attend here.  I especially liked this poem, so he sent it for us to share as well as anything from his website:  http://www.tomkeeneandthemuse.com.

Poetry that Matters

 

First, grasp the facts of whatever is

as to cut through and under mere appearance

and any consensus to deny.

 

Next, speak, write, whisper, shout

their untold-ring-true meanings.

 

Then, put these forth

like a fisherman’s bait

to hook the guts of any who listen,

enflame the passion of those who can hear.

 

Rouse them to rise

out of pretense into planting themselves,

put down roots, send up branches, bear fruit.

 

Tom Keene

November 10, 2017

San Antonio poet Tom Keene. 

Carol Youmans sent a poem after she left

About Poetry Making

When I picked up my pen,
I thought about reading to 34 earnest ears
Circled in a room
(If Jeannie forgot to come)
And I missed them so much
That I picked up the phone instead
And called a friend
I haven't talked to
in months.
                            Carol Youmans

a poem from Polish poet Tadeusz Rózewicz

poetry doesn't always

take the form

of a poem

after fifty years

of writing

poetry

may appear

to the poet

in the shape of a tree

a bird

flying away

light

it takes the shape

of lips

it nests in their silence

or it lives in a poem

devoid of form and content

                          Oct. 13, 1988


So  this is in line with an earlier question, whether or not a poem can exist without words.  I think.  Found a collection, Sobbing Superpower: selected poems of Tadeusz Rózewicz, in our coffeeshop down here this morning.     (posting from Texas, Sylvia Manning)