Precise Ballet and Heartburn

Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem

The purpose of your prose is that it shows

Us plainly what you mean, so if it fails

To make its message clear as if on toes

Of ballerinas, then its quirks and flails

In clarity force prose to miss the point.

The opposite is true for poets.  They

Impose a pregnant meaning to appoint

Their words with mystery, to make them say

Their lines with masks, with masquerade

As if in Venice in an evening’s haze,

Like hidden lovers’ Mardi Gras parade,

Like whispers dressed in magic to amaze.

  We need our prose for everyday concerns,

    The poetry for when our hearts’ blood burns.

© Phillip Whidden