Tues., Mar. 24

Letters, words,
phrases, sentences,
tack them together longer,
do they make more sense,
or less?
If you hurry and misspell,
it might make sense;
a muddled sentence can make nearly none,
and a beautifully written,
but sloppily done
article or essay
can actually drive sense
or substance away,
and leave you dizzy.

Refrigerator magnet poetry
isn't quite at random,
might be even poetic,
but they have to do the work
of holding up lists
and school pictures first.
Corners of artworks
or coupons get uncurled,
or boundaries are marked
across the front of the door.
Then they get to be a poem,
if there's time.

Much of poetry is needed
to hold together hearts,
tell stories,
share a picture across
a space, from era to era.
Poems can set a tone,
they get asked to start an event,
or end one;
sometimes they punctuate a program
where speeches get made
and a breath must be taken.
Poets even bury and marry folk,
the poems doing the heavy lifting.
Then they get to just be poetry,
if there's time.