Great Poetry

[Brian37]

To be clear, I’m not putting this here because I think it’s “great” (ha!), but I know some folks were posting personal work so I thought it would be fun to share. Constructive criticism is always welcome. I workshop regularly on another forum so I’m quite comfortable with critique. 🙂


Tethered

When I die I’d like to stay;
to weave around the filaments
of organized matter, and make
a home on the riverbank.

What is a heaven
without slippery pebble, and frothing peaks;
without the slow groan of dock line
tugging on sun-stung fishing boats
in meter with the tide?
You can keep your angels;

I’ll swoop with the great blue heron,
scanning watery bottoms for the emerald flash
of stray rock bass, and swirl
in the luster of lighthouse beams
that have married with the morning fog.

If I grow lonely
after everyone has passed,
I’ll just swallow the wet sand,
and slam into the rocking boat hulls
until there’s nothing left,
and I am the river -

the clusters of catfish eggs,
and the spiny legs of scuttling blue crayfish.
I am the silt that touches everything.
Don’t bother beckoning me.
I won’t fit inside a paradise.

In my decades of reading and writing, I have long since learned, art is simply that which works. It will work for some and not others. That is why I am no fan of being a critic. I can only say if I like an individual piece of work, or not. But I never like to assume it wont work for others. 

I have listened to poets whom will never be famous, whom I love. I have listened to others whom are perfectly metered where the message is lost on me, or I got the message but didn't agree with it. 

All I can say to anyone who writes, is to always be yourself, and never be afraid of putting it out there. When you write what you feel, it shows a lot more than if you try to force what you think someone else thinks you should be.

I liked your poem. Especially the last two lines.