Studio8 - Uniting the Arts

poetry is a lonely thing
the reason to be a poet
is a lonely thing
finding words in the void
is never something you do
in a crowd,

the poet has to go within
has to hang out with words
I like words like orange
or Buddha, or jazz
I like neon signs in the fifties

I like JFK's speech in the sixties
the one where he warned us
about the shadow government

I want to run away from things
that happen in this world
but a poet can't help but
speak about things

but like the Buddha, poetry is a refuge
if you have eyes to see, you will not
believe what you watch on TV

a poet is not a general or a wall street
banker, a poet is a solitary soul
do you remember barber shop poles
a poet is like a barber shop pole

because something is winding around
inside him, a long line of words
winding around a core of language

like a walking barber shop pole
you can see him coming a mile away
his eye balls going around in circles
those words like a red line going around
reaching up to the Buddha clouds

the best words often
seem to be found alone,
though not always..

As far as I know, my becoming a poet came from a very deep sense of isolation
a very personal sense of being alone, I can't explain exactly how that was what
made me want to be a poet, I had a feeling about poetry since I was thirteen
but I don't remember exactly when I decided I would be one, it was in the back
of my mind. But it was not until I met a writer/poet that I resonated with
and began writing more because of his influence, and he was the one that
said I was now a poet. Also the early lyrics of Bob Dylan in the late sixties
were a big influence.I did not really get into reading a lot of writers/poets
until I decided I was a poet, when I was almost twenty.