Let Me Die A Poet

Let me die a poet and
not just an honest man,
for truth dissembles
with masks of love and war
and presses us to go, to dance
and even to take a stand.


But a poem is a quiet stream
that flows past summery banks
to a private garden where,
in the meanest world,
all can come and understand.


Let me die a poet
and not just an honest man.


FG Nov. 15, 2011

All rights reserved by the author Forrest Greenwood.

“Why speak of the use
of poetry? Poetry
is what uses us.”

Haden Carruth from Five Short-Shorts

A garden by a flowing stream is a wonderful metaphor for paradise in the Koran. I am thinking about all my friends who pass on liberal or conservative pieces without ever writing anything themselves but “must read!” I'm never sure what their end game or vision is. It's the poet in me.