Be Careful What You Write - It May Be True

BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WRITE – IT MAY BE TRUE It is a myth that people can be objective in their opinions. People focus on qualities in others that they themselves have. A kind person sees only kindness in others, A mean person sees the meanness in others, A kind person does not focus on the meanness of others. This holds true for poetry fans, like me, like you: Some SOUPER who talks about “the gritty, sharp, philosophical feel that you create” Or who uses an expression like “ slitting the poetic wrists of a word weaver” Is indeed such a person, such a poet. When a speaker assesses another as “an architect of words” Who can have you “reeling with sumptuous dialogue…applause!” Then it seems to me that the speaker is in reality such a person. Some guy can say “this may be brushed with light tones But the sentiment is friggingly deep...” And some gal may offer “bewitched am I with this exquisite expo on a bloom”, And in both cases they are the true poet; and moreover, If someone is kind enough to like a piece of verse and to say so, It is an act of highly personal significance for the poet who writes, For poets almost always write from the heart about their inner world, Entered only by invitation to special people. The poem is the invitation: Written so that only those who understand will respond. Poetry is a foreign language to most people, To whom reading it is like playing Beethoven* with mittens on, Or drinking French wine* with a coca-cola chaser: The true inner effect is completely absent. Write to other poets often, for when we tell another of our admiration, It reveals our own self in plain words. …………………………………………………… NOTES *Beethoven = deaf old guy who wrote tunes. He and I have much in common, except I don’t write tunes. *French wine = the finest in the world – as claimed by the French.