Why not other short stories or novels or plays?
Why poetry?
A poem can be as long as centuries of lives,
or as short as a single breath,
it can be throwing you into the deep end of realism,
or it can be the relaxation of muscles
because you know how to swim in it's waters,
it can be images of vast spaces of galaxies and stars and nothingness,
or it can be exploding kaleidoscopic orgasmic everything.
Why poetry?
It can be slower than the soft rain dribbling
and trailing down your windshield on a cold autumn day.
It can be faster than the nearly
forgotten dream bringing a grin to your face.
Why poetry?
Short stories and novels are truest works of literary wit and wonder -
they can show the tiniest cracks on the facade of the perfect life.
Ahh, yes, that is true for those, but poetry can do that and so much more -
poetry has the ability
to make the loneliest man dance in a hall with strangers,
to make souvenirs of the memories of the first kiss
with the girl who had cherry lip gloss on her lips,
to make late-night vulgar bodily seances
to the boy who could make his fingers dance in just the right spots
that would make your body, your lips,
your fingers and toes quiver and tingle
with excitement and nervousness
and lust.
Poetry may be as old as dirt, and my not as be as prominent
as your King
or your Meyer
or your James,
but every few years, some poem, some person comes along and shakes things up;
Whispering songs about themselves,
giving great barbaric yawps,
comparing love to shrubbery,
retelling stories of wars and attacks,
telling us how the greatest minds of generations were hungry, mad, and naked...
Why poetry?
Because everyday you go through life
breathing in harshness, sadness, grim realities...
but you breathe out bittersweet poetry,
and that's
my
drug.
