8.09.2011

one's time as poet

Perhaps one is a poet only for that brief duration when the new poem is read aloud.

2 comments:

vazambam (Vassilis Zambaras) said...

As in "Let it speak now or forever remain silent?" :-)

Andrew Shields said...

There's a wonderful passage in an essay by Jacques RĂ©da where he says something like a poet is not always a poet, but only for a few years, and in those years, only for a few months, and in those months, only for a few days, and so on, until one is only a poet for a few seconds.

So here's one of mine from a while back, a little ditty:

THE DAY AFTER WRITING A POEM

Yesterday, I was a poet.
Today, I still don't know if I'll be one again.
And if I am, I will not know it
until tomorrow. But will I be one then?