Monday, February 4, 2013

poem of the day 02.04.13


poems about being a poet

poets
do me a favor, please

stop writing poems about being a poet

those kinds of poems are just not interesting
and they’re as common as taking a morning shit
or farting in bed

it’s no hard business being a poet

try lifting windows and doors for twelve hours a day
or working the register
at a grocery store on a sunday afternoon
after all of the salivating sheep have finished with church

or if you have
write about that instead

but stop it with the poems about being a poet business

reading poems like that
are like brushing my teeth or putting on socks

they are common and every day

and there is no way to spruce it up
by calling yourself a revolutionary
or linking yourself to the poets of the past

mentioning ezra, jeffers, bukowski, or any of the others
add nothing to what is banal and simple-minded

writing about being a revolutionary poet in a capitalist state
is akin to pissing in the wind, my friends

go get a starbucks coffee and stream some television show instead

i mean if you’re going to put art into the world
at least make it of interest to something more than a common housefly

or write about a common housefly

there could be an immortal poem in you
about a common housefly

but i can almost guarantee there will be no immortality
writing poems about being a poet

there’s only redundancy and boredom
writing about things like that

so stop

stop for me
stop for you
stop for the good of mankind

check out a sunset and drop a verse about that
go and get laid and give us all of the salacious details

jack-off on the morning bus
and have the straights haul you away into the madhouse
then spin that shit for a page or two

but no more poems about being a poet

because if that’s all that you have in you
why not take up something soft

like knitting
or politics.

                                   

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