“poetry is somebody standing up…and saying…what it is for him or her to be on earth at this moment." – Galway Kinnell
He said it was our job
Being poets, our job
Looking at and going
Beyond the at, being the
Witness, then creating the
Feeling of that being here.
But can we, really or not,
Can we in all the wildness
In our thoughts reduce it
To truth, whatever, witnessing
And scribing for eternity?
I never thought of it
That way, really, not
Really that way, to be
Bearing witness, we,
Standing still for verities?
Like watching people and
Things, assigning them, now…
Anyway, he said it, and
He should know, firmly placed
In the upper reaches, assured,
Having a solid foothold and
Voice, still though, a poet,
You know, bearing witness?
YOU ARE READING
Poetry
PoetryTHIS POEM SITUATES CONTEMPORARY LIFE AS A GROWTH EXPERIENCE, NOT A CONTEMPLATION OF WHAT MIGHT BE. IT DENIES THE 20TH CENTURY NOTIONS OF BEING AND NOT BEING.
