Just to Craft
Janet Kuypers
8/21/19 (written on
National Poets Day)
Can it be taxing to try
to wax poetic...
the task is taxing, and traumatic —
spilling the ills of the downtrodden,
relaying the pain of a nation,
feeling the grievances of a people —
for all self-proclaimed poets
know they have no choice
but to immerse themselves,
to wallow in the feelings of all,
just to work, just to craft
just the right words
that everyone can relate to,
that everyone can feel the emption from...
that can change people as a whole.
This is the lifetime task
they are challenged with,
just to work, to slave
...and in this case
slave is no understatement
because they slave just to save.
They are forced in every moment
to feel the full realm of everything
that can happen to everyone,
so at the drop of a hat they wax poetic
about the joy and the pain,
because they have no choice.
They slave just to save.
Just to make people think.
Just to make a difference.
It’s a daunting task,
and no serious poet
takes this task lightly.
Anyone from Shakespeare
to Edgar Allen Poe
to Charles Bukowski
understands this,
because it is our choice
to live and die
by the written word —
as it should be.
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