The Modern Poet

(100 first)

Sharing the world her laboring tongue

the modern poet knows what

she is capable of when

others insult her usage of words

reproach her senseless paragraphs

impossible to articulate

scrutinize her utter opacity of

meaningful convention.

Words that busily multiply fewer and

fewer cues for clarity

deliberately dislocating language to fit

music shaping sound

her embrace of language as the subject

distancing from deeper attachments

fears, distrust—

obscurity dominates

controls her will

guides her refusal to relinquish elusiveness

and incoherence

her one true way!

over the mindless movement of predictability

and the commonplace.

Her literary path both familiar and

unknowable.

 

(25)

The modern poet is an instrument

of her own indecipherable form.

A master of incoherence

elusiveness and obscurity.

Her notebook is full of

blank pages.