1 | "Real enough" [vers libre]

for Ustad Asad Ali Khan


It seems a bad idea to pay
too much attention to poetry
you may start thinking it has
something like a substantive existence
you may soon be assuming
it offers refuge and solace

maybe a room to hang your hat in
maybe a hat to spangle your hatrack
a hatrack implying hat and room --
and a window, oh it could have a window
at this point raag Desh could be playing
on the turntable

and poetry then might seem
very exotic and very domestic

we're not here speaking of
the question of so-called vocation
those who build a resume and leave
breadcrumbs of identity trailing
through the magazines and journals
some of them real go-getters

some of them wary and taciturn
all of them seeming to believe
there's such a thing as a poetry career
you can invent one
send out the letters
and become a professional

no we're not going there
that's not quite what I'm talking about
we can let that one
dangle in the semblance of a wind
the willow would seem real enough
in a poem



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This is the first in a cycle of eight poems. For the full sequence, see:
By the willow