ON READING POETRY (a.k.a. A Reason for Why It's Not for Everyone)

You can read it from a page,

get the gist,

guess the rest

but that's not proper poetry.

Catch a performance but

you'll need an ear

to get to the essence of poetry.

Middle ground: perform yourself

but is that honestly poetry?

I don't read poems right.

I don't write poems. Really

I've been nodding 
along

all my life.

At a reading, I don't shut my eyes,

don't connect,

can't switch off to hear

even half the words.

I catch what I can,

join the wow afterwards.

All I hear is a rap,

a rhythm,

lyrics filling melody's absence

with a well-meant melody

of words.

I love those,

I love them,

it's just the form they come in.

Plots may plod along but

at least I feel the breaks,

the pacing, the pay-off.

And so breathless too

or breath-heavy

though that is usually the poet.

He has a sinus problem.

He said.

It could just be the poet's drone
but no. The actors, presenters, performers,

they're too pretty,

I hear their voices too well

for the words to tell

rather than sell themselves.

Perhaps I'm no good at poetry,

all that intention they expect you to find,

I fall asleep if the thoughts get too deep,

snorting awake at a cheap para-rhyme.

I do see humour

far better than beauty.

Cheek is fun.

Keep a tongue in there,

we're golden.

That

all

be-
-ing

said

I still go out for poetry,

still stay in, thumb it,

plumbing for perfection,

peering proper but

leaving tired.

Prose, pick me up.

It's not really my nature

to think of nature

like that.