Once wrote a poem and said,
"If they don't like this one I'm going to kill myself."
(It was a poem of love really and reuniting love at that.)
I really meant it. Because after all
What is there without sharing and telling the story?
Without allegorical free verses?
Who would want
This world without people like me?
If people don't like it is it really poetry?
There's no answer.
If enough people see it someone will like it.
Poof! It's poetry again.

What if no one liked it?
Hard to imagine.
No. One. Liked. It.
It's all the honesty you can give,
All the love you can give.
It's all the funny stuff you can give,
It's sort of everything to you.
About you.
True of every poem you write.
No one liked it.
What would you do?
I think I might just kill myself.

If I suddenly woke up in a world, where nothing
Preoccupies me?
A world where I couldn't just sit and stare
At a worm trying to crawl back into the ground,
Or a dead garter snake, or an at old friend
And be filled with wonder?
A world where the simple things
Are no longer fun to look at, to write about,
And to sing about?
A world where meeting people and shaking their hands,
Or hugging them, or hugging and kissing them, or
Spending the day skiing with them, or crying with them,
Or helping their dreams come true,
And telling their story, is no longer possible?

In that sad world of devastating rejection
I'm not quite sure what I would do.
I might kill myself. I mean, why not?
Then there's the issue of how.
Poets do this through all history.
It's a well-known art of the art.
So it's an option, although -- as above --
Often done in haste and awful worry.
It leaves a lot behind. A lot of well-meaning people
Who may yet speak up.

So, on reflection, this option for its
Execution and resolution issues
Is a path of least resistance
I avoid.
I like to do it the hard way.
There is always the rewrite and repost.
There is hope of course there is.
We all know there are good days.
A day like this, perhaps.
But there are days, snakes, worms, and love
Out there waiting. It's all true.
Look around. It may save you.

09/29/2012

Posted on 10/04/2012
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