Why Poets? Why Poems?

To cheer the dull dormer

To salute the former

To paint with a murmur

A picture of thought

To hail far-off fellow

To scale willow-cello

And touch time’s lost hello

With tittle of jot

To sail summer’s schooner

When winter comes sooner

Than we expected

In the prime of youth

To etch on plain paper

Child’s innocent caper

To press on page-patience

Age old words of truth

To probe faded flowers

And revisit hours

That day-night devours

Without heed or care

To love with ink-ardor

And revere the charter

Where words beg and barter

From arbors of air

To tickle our fancy

With fickle romance-y

To dance with a drifter

Of whisper and pen

To write then to wonder

What waits over yonder

If poet should plunder

‘Perhaps’ once again

To hold to the Holy

And traverse more slowly

The hill and the valley

Of days come to pass

To keen callous senses

To Ageless Immense-ness

Hinged to shimmered deftness

In life’s hour-glass

© Janet Martin