Poetry is Breath

 

       Poetry is breath,

not a sailboat sunk

decades ago mid-ocean,

far from any desire for discovery

let alone retrieval.

       Poetry is everything,

not the thing never talked about,

avoided into non-existence

because it is uncomfortable

and far too strange.

       Poetry is like God,

only not God, but tied to God

like a puppet to the puppeteer’s strings

dependant on God for any and all

animation.

       Poetry is coming,

burning down the aisle

to its lasting consummation.

       Deny it and it will by-pass you,

and its gift, its magnificence

(like a first love that feels

that first love unending)

you will never experience.

       Poetry is not song.

In some ways (thunder-lightning beat)

more primal.

In some ways (blood-curdling word connections)

less.

       Poetry is not like birth

is more like death –

only mentioned when necessary,

but always inevitably

necessary.

       Poetry is breath.

If you love it, you will know it

like a lover, satisfying, surprising,

strenuously demanding.

If you pretend it is not for you,

then it is not,

and you will go through your days

without it, missing that meal,

that next-layer rare connection

that has no substitute or important equal.

 

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Copyright © 2023 by Allison Grayhurst

amazon.com/author/allisongrayhurst

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Published in “Cultural Reverence”  June 2023

https://theculturalreverence.wordpress.com/2023/06/07/poetry-is-breath-a-poem-by-allison-grayhurst/

https://theculturalreverence.wordpress.com/vol-v-no-3-june-edition-2023/

 

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Published in “Fevers of the Mind” June 2023

https://feversofthemind.com/2023/06/05/a-poetry-showcase-allison-grayhurst-june-2023/

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Published in “Cultural Reverence” June 2023

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You can listen to the poem by clicking below:

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