Things A Poet Should Know

[Lightning Rod]

The poet knows that his words will be misread
or if not misread at least misunderstood
Else he's taken by surprise,
hoist on the bombast of his expectations

He becomes full of himself
starts to believe his own press
warm air hisses through his tragic flaw
like wind through a sandstone maw

there is a canyon in his mountain dream
he becomes useless as an object
but that's the ambition of a poet
to make friends with the lonely night

He slept with the wife of Socrates
fun but none the wiser for it
thinks he could rewrite the psalms
if God would only give him a break

You can't fake a fakir drunk on the genuwine
The mirage is real, it's just not water
Words have no mass or gravity
These things a poet should remember

[Barry]

Indeed. And the reader would do well to remember, also.

Peace,
Barry

[Doreen Peri]

You can't fake a fakir drunk on the genuwine
The mirage is real, it's just not water
Words have no mass or gravity
These things a poet should remember

great stanza!... i especially like the wordplay "drunk on the genuwine"

and "words have no mass or gravity"

[hester_prynne]

"warm air hisses through his tragic flaw
like wind through a sandstone maw"

I like these lines too.
The whole piece is excellent.

H

[judih]

he becomes useless as an object
but that's the ambition of a poet
to make friends with the lonely night

and here i come along to remove words from context - but when i read this, i just drifted into associations - so fine was the pronouncement, so ironically apt

that lonely night - like a blood sister

[sonofthesun]

it goes straight to delusion
my words make sense
but you dont get it
an inbred lack
a system error that must be fixed
oh the granduer your missing
to see the beauty behind my thoughts
you are none the wiser
a worshiper of all that is false
you lack the traits of the worthwhile
the ones to be saved
2012
your kind shall become extinct...
no wait,
its but an end of one series
been done repeated millenia
no worries
histeria is for the weak willed individuals
sucking the cock of the weak willed individuals
and a very merry unbirthday to me
to you

[saw]

it's hard for me to cite my favorite part clay, as each stanza stands proud ( don't let it go your head, my friend)...seriously many memorable phrases, most already mentioned, but I was fond of,

He slept with the wife of Socrates
fun but none the wiser for it.................classic