Redefining Poetry
Poetry is not the plain
Alphabet of signs and
Sounds, of graphemes
And phonemes, but
Of the inarticulate
Composed of the invisible
ABC Blocks and texts of
Rarified air. Poetry is
Subtlest geometry with
Slowly fading points,
Lines, angles, arcs, circles,
Squares and triangles
Of idioms and meanings,
And not the fixed denotations
And exact definition
Of words. Poetry is
Not the advanced calculus
Of differential Equation,
Vector and Vertex, but
Basic subtraction in
Syllables and symbols.
Poetry is the science
Of quantum versification,
Of subatomic metaphorical
Photons and random
Quasar enjambments;
And not Newton’s apple
Of gravity, or the law of
Hyperbolic conservation.
Poetry is not sleight-of-lips,
Mere magical trick of pulling
A rabbit-eared nuance,
But the alchemy of absences
And presences, conjuring
A poem that Is not spoken
Or writ, but leaves everything
Nameless, Ineffable, unsaid
And reverberating with
Pure silence when whispered
By the hermetically-sealed,
Expanseless mouth of infinity
In the whorled ear of eternity!
* * *
The Lexicographer
There was a lexicographer
Who, when he found out that his work
Rhymes with the demeaning word “gopher,”
Hastily switched to a new racket
As a professional sycophant
Which, alas, rhymes with the term “ant,”
Which in turn made him feel quite small
And, by Godzilla, not ten feet tall!
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