What We Drink
Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem
Who wants thick wisdom first in poems? It
Is ours for chewing in the pleasures of
The scrolls of Plato, thinkers who permit
The thought that pleasure proves the point of love,
And stern philosophers with guts to kill
All weakness, straight. The cup of hemlock comes
And they are strong. They drink. They do not spill.
The use of poetry with pretty thrums
On mandolins in minds and hairy chests
Is first for some, perhaps a very few.
Philosophy dwells. Poetry arrests.
It seizes arteries and gives their view.
..Just that is what we want from poets first.
….We want the slaking of the heart’s own thirst.