A poem is
i
15-minute stretch session
that turns into an hour-long workout
daily dose of Vitamin B Complex
empowering, strengthening, energizing
word binge of connotation, alliteration, rhyme
rich helpings of similes and metaphors
catharsis, mind-cleanse, purge
veiled in enigma to say the unsayable
one more cipher
on the cell-wall of life
ii
gift bag bouffant with tissue
hiding surprise, humor, delight
jewelry-box dancer
twirling clear tones
rainbow-ribbon gymnast
dazzling with mental agility and color
ponderous backpack
of awakened implication, guilt, responsibility
birdsong celebration
of the ordinary but magnificent
© 2009 by Violet Nesdoly
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I really enjoyed Angela Alaimo O’Donnell’s second “What is Poetry” essay on the Tweetspeak blog last week. In it she talks about writing poetry herself and how that process contains a consciousness of the reader.
Her piece reminded me of “A poem is” that I wrote in 2009. In it I tried to express my relationship with poetry, first as a writer of poems, and then as a reader of the poems of others.
Violet Nesdoly 