Poetry about Poetry ... original or previously published poetry, December 2000
Muse
3 a.m.
and out of my
skull
I ripped my pants on a nail
in the alley behind the Irish Club
it happened, the rusty nail may still be there.
rusting, till its all gone
drowning in current
and becoming a poem
The purpose of talking about poetry
is to talk about poetry is to poetry and talk
and talk about talk,
which is odd because what we don't do is talk,
we make statements and poetry
electronic words sentences
sentencing us to wait for a reply.
I have no idea what it is about
or what it is about except poetry and talk
or talk and poetry.
I don't know, wish I did,
there is an answer I am sure
but I haven't found it yet,
perhaps the answer lies
in defining the indefinable
understanding the unknowable
accepting that some things just are,
or are not, or may be
cliched as the case may be,
rusting on the picket lines in Speke
speaking dead language poems
that inform on white boned miners
as black rock dust paints clouds over picket lines,
or years later at Liverpool docks
waiting to be turned into myth
entropic rusting like a nail
poems speak to the contradictions.
Sell our newspaper in the street
take pennies from passing strangers
so children can eat
fade away the days
the docks
families at the docks
turning them to poems and myths
mythic poems, epics about myths
as if they never where
just words and poems,
poems and words
Poetry is structured talking or something
just words stung together
hung together redefined in metaphor
strung up, hung up
strung up poems
written by strung up hung up poets
tyrants turning life into an art.
they can beat us with words
Performance poets
performing performances
words and poetry
poetic words
bring a black art back into life.
But it's what it's about
it's steel and coal and lives
steal or rusty steel
it rips at you rips at you, rips at you
and at 3am
in the alley
behind the Irish club
in Liverpool
poetry is a rusty nail
(originally on BBC World Service and on a "Down in Liverpool" CD.)
Jim BennettNext poem
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Updated November 2000
Tim Love