โWhat can a poem do?โ
โโโโโโโโโ-
โA poem
is a not a tourniquet
when youโre bleeding.
Itโs not water when youโre thirsty
or food when youโre hungry.
A poem canโt protect you from an airstrike,
or from abduction, or from hate.
Itโs hard to write when our words feel
like theyโre not enoughโthey canโt do
the real, tangible work of saving lives,
or making people safer.โ
(see (1) Maggie Smith)
<~>
as is my wont,
I write,
as isย myย Natted~inhabited,
retiring to the local watering holes of
Cerebrum & Cerebellum,
them regular haunts,
where all requests are mailed, processed, satisfied & marked;
โreturn & render to the sender, whoโs on a cerebral ******!โ
and that request?
โgive me the wordsโ (2)
those โto doโ words, floaters, direct to top of list,
those โcan doโ words, that can effect the affect,
spare the despair,ย realize the fungible, concretize cures,
soften hard waters, giving a worsening worn life fabric a
curated baby blanket feel, a 4-ply human tissue of
โwords that tell me everythingโ (2)
salve solution verbs that bounty-wipe spills in entirety,
vacuum up spillage spoiling of 17 days of terrible nouns,
uncovered-unknown rages caused by inflicting prepositions
released a hatred rising,
safety rebury it deeper, drug & destruct the sleeper agents,
and let me start over again with
โtelling me everything by saying nothingโ (2)
the pausal silence, the quieted spaces tween the heartbeats,
where โreflection,โ
the noun,
and its world of alternations,
reflection,
the noun,
look inwards, but shining outward,
this, this!
is where the poem goes to do!
enervating & arresting
its contradictory powers
rock you into wild docility,
possessive and submissive,
contradictory interferences,
smoothing the roughness,
closing the gaps it opens,
healing the caused truthful cuts,
with words that tell you
everything and nothing,
open the holes, filling the gaps,
that is what a
poem do,
in and by
the manner it is spokenโฆ
<~>
โSometimes a poem is the stone you carry in your pocketโthe one you rub when youโre worried.ย ย Letโs fill our pockets with poems.โ
(see (1) Maggie Smith)
(1) Maggie Smith Oct. 24
(see link https://open.substack.com/pub/maggiesmith/p/what-can-a-poem-do
(2) see the lyrics toโIn a Manner of Speakingโ
