a good poet
cannot produce or seduce
with gun pointed at head,
as if a deadline
meant a line
could not be dead
before it was even born.
a good poet
does not wear a watch
nor use mayan astronomy
to stay on course
but following the tick-tock
of sun, moon, and stars
could become a poem by itself.
a good poet
eats porridge like it was good
spurns any drink except porter
is known to make molehills out of mountains
and turn the hardest wall into dust.
percy called a good poet
the unacknowledged legislator of mankind
but i don't know any good poets
who moonlight as barristers,
parliamentarians, or jurors
perhaps the jury is still out
on whether a good poet can survive
on his word-wits alone.
