I would like to share with each of you a poem that I’ve had posted in my office for two years. It’s author can ratiocinately be called the “Greatest Living Unknown American Poet in my Opinion.” Please enjoy.
National Poetry Month
This notion,
So noble,
So sweet:
One twelfth of the year,
Eight point three three percent
Of our days,
Just for poetry!
Finally,
Vindication for lives lived
In the unremunerated and unrepentant
Pursuit of the perfect image,
The turn of phrase that might matter.
Wait.
What about the stuff
Of the other months?
Genocide,
Starvation,
Easy listening….
Maybe poetry en masse is more frightening
Than the fecundity of April itself.
I see a pestilence of poets
Swarming over the oozing sore
Of verse gone bad.
Christopher Barr
April, 2005