Poetry from Thailand

Original poetry written in and about rural Thailand.

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Location: Chong Khae, Nakhonsawan, Thailand

Saturday, April 11, 2015

Make No Mistake





Make no mistake that poetry is memory
and those who would have it be a more
exalted thing are both dead and wrong.
Poets do not think or see, but only remember.
I remember the summer breezes and the
Memorial Day lilacs up a hill in New Hampshire.
I remember the lawn sprinklers left on
which were vague shapes of bouquets hissing
in the dark air as I walked home at night.

There were times when life seemed like a casino
pumped full of kitsch like oxygen to keep
us from leaving the black jack table.  If I
don’t post these black poems, I may feel
heroic or noble, but . . .

Make no mistake that refugees from Syria,
from Mosul, from Yemen dream of New York
New York and breaking the bank just as we do
but would settle for a piece of stale bread
or the touch of a lost loved one.

As a poet, my hopes seem infinitely smaller.
God forgive me.

FG           4/10/2015