Perfect Sigh
A question I have asked myself of late:
what essence does this poetry possess
which differentiates it from mere prose,
and gives distinction to its 'poemness'?
Sometimes, at least to me, a puzzle fits
the way I go about the task at hand;
the sonnet with its fourteen lines permits
the muse some license, structural remand.
Here, meter, thought, and rhyme must smoothly meld,
convey a captured thought and set it free
in such a manner that the reader, held,
is entertained, at least to some degree.
Sometimes the challenge lies within a text
that already possesses its own form:
retain a meaning not too highly vexed,
while patterning against a different norm.
A poem may shed light on dark events,
or ridicule the theater absurd,
or liken things not normally compared,
use turn of phrase or play upon a word.
Iambic pairs are what I've changed the most,
with good results, but not all of the time,
for scarce I think I've found a call to boast,
the meter's shot and words don't seem to rhyme.
Perfection, rarely found, can be hard-fought;
improper turns of phrase stick in one's craw.
at other times, the words flow as they ought -
a thing of beauty, satisfaction's “ahhhh."
So clicking on a Google link displayed
by searching on the nature of this word,
I find it means "a work" or "something made";
in Greek, “poy-ay-mah” is the way it's heard.
Surprisingly, the word is found in Strong's,
a catalog of Bible words by verse.
The entry under "poem" isn't long;
with just two entries, one might call it terse.
The first, in Romans One, declares that God,
in things that have been made, can be perceived.
and thus, though you indeed may find this odd,
creation is a poem God conceived!
Ephesians has the best usage of all,
in chapter two and starting at verse ten:
"For we are his poema,” there writes Paul,
for works prepared before it all began.
Just ponder this: when God said "very good,”
it was not for the stars that filled the sky.
A source of wonder, scarcely understood:
that poetry was man, God's perfect sigh.
Copyright © Jeff Kyser | Year Posted 2022
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