Happy People Don’t Write Poetry



Happy people do not write poetry
They are comfortable not to question
The subtle disquiet
 
They do not break the brain
With wondering
 
Or split the meat of the mind
To hack at words
with axes blunt
and a puttering will
 
Or spread their trembling souls
To pose a question, and recoil
To hear it echo back at them
 
Happy people live in harmony
With the numb and knowing certainty
That the world is right and round.
 
The poets hate their poetry
They rip and tear and claw the air
The poets chase the thing itself
And it sails away without them.
 
I would never want to write
To publish what was never done
And wince when others read it,
Like stroking salamanders
 
Leave the poems for the poets.
 
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Written on January 15, 2022

Submitted by 11jen.helmer on January 15, 2022

Modified on May 02, 2023

42 sec read
93

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABX XX XXXX XXC AAX AXXC XBXX X
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 699
Words 140
Stanzas 8
Stanza Lengths 3, 2, 4, 3, 3, 4, 4, 1

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