To Be a Poet
To Be a Poet
To be a poet is not to write poems.
No.
Most anyone can do that.
Most anyone has done that,
for school, maybe.
To be a poet is to see a tree
and not just see a tree,
to see the hungry branches reaching to the sun
trying to grasp something,
but never quite reaching it.
Because to be a poet is to have words rushing through your blood,
to need poetry like oxygen,
to see a dandelion and think of a past love
so beautiful, taking up your being,
but then to blow away with all your hopes and dreams,
exactly like you did to me.
To be a poet is to live in the in-betweens,
between real life and fantasies,
to know the deepest truths
and believe the greatest lies.
And I don't know if anyone can be a poet,
or if it's just how you're born,
but I know that poetry is more than just the words
because to be a poet is not only about poetry,
it's about the world that those poems let you see.
The Voice
June 2024
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