definition
where does the poem come from
some think it is god
others suffering
i believed at some point
that poem and place were the same
a map of the washboard
roads of someone's existence
then there are those
pulling poems from
the air into their nets
i think of Pablo
he would probably say
the poem is the spaces
between the mesh net
not what we bring to our hands
or ashore but
what escapes us
the water flowing
back to her mother
the butterfly pushed away
by the whoosh of the net
poems are like people
they come from everywhere
still there is no definition
that is mine
no meteorite burning red
in the 3:00 a.m. sky
no brief electricity
of a first kiss
define define define
the poem is
what would have happened
if Tristan and Isolde had lived
some mad potion
that is supposed to be death
and is instead
the way we fall and live
more fully because we have fallen
po-em n 1: a word that is the name of something. 2: the moment when the word becomes something. i.e. as in the moment when we should be sleeping but wait up in case she has one more beautiful thing to say.
po-em v 1: a word that expresses an act, occurrence, or mode of being. 2: to build freely. i.e. a roof made of words or a wall constructed of silence.
po-em prep 1: pre + ponere, to put. 2: a form that combines with a noun or pronoun that has a relation to some other word. i.e. to be at a state of revision or to be on the cusp of some unthought thought.
po-em adj 1: often formed by adding endings such as -able, -ful and -ish to nouns or verbs. 2: relating to or functioning as beautiful, clear or something like sunlight on a first snow.
po-em adv 1: form by adding -ly to an adjective, thus making it even more poetic, exceptions are lovely, brotherly, friendly. add freely to amazing, brilliant or beautiful or any force of nature requiring one more syllable to be remembered. i.e. the sunrise that february morning was burning brilliantly for all the souls that would leave that day.
po-em conj 1: the act of conjoining, or the occurrence together in time or space. 2: linguistic form that joins together sentences, clauses, phrases, words, or time and space. i.e. a red bird flying into a cloud or squinting one's eyes at night to make all the stars one light.
po-em interj 1: word immediately following a poem. 2: word that moves you to a better or more introspective place. i.e. wow, yes, and oh my.
and then there is still
this lack of my own definition
and where it will persist
the backbeat of a song
that is its heart
the things we wish to say
and don't
the way unsaid things
try to live
even as we kill them
here is my definition
tomorrow there will be
a new river
but today at 10:03 a.m.
on a friday
the poem is thursday and saturday
it is what burns us
makes us love
what used to be
as we hope that
tomorrow the poem will be
newborn again into the sky
much like venus or our sun
in the hours before we wake
