Why Be a Poet

I’m asked if my literary work is fiction or reality Do I compose to inspire those to read with affection Expressing my thoughts and feelings through poetry Weaving my spiritual, cultural, or historical reflections Applying humor and sadness or simple common folklore Acceptance of my gift to write in free verse or rhyme Often integrating images, creativity, and metaphors I hope reading my poetry never wastes anyone’s time A cluster of thoughts akin to an array of butterflies Flutters in my head like a mass of balanced accounts A helium-filled balloon, and at its end is a string tied Trees bid farewell to leaves cascading to the ground Bring to life the mind’s imagination for what it is worth Travailing and pushing the words out is how we express Just as a soon-to-be mother, in due season, brings birth A subtle way to connect, we, poets, unashamedly confess On plain parchment that influenced us in every walk of life Leaving an everlasting mark of our poetic pleasure or pain Like footprints on the beach or a scar from a serrated knife We are poets because we love leaving an indelible ink stain