poetry is a thump, a crumpling somewhere
poetry is a deep growl from your perfect
red center
poetry is the quietest corner, a broken
window
poetry is a single silver chain suspended
from this mountain to that river
poetry is the street, if the street
is alive and jumping, not like one of those twinkie suburbs where
everyone is frightened and bored
poetry is a falling piñata
poetry is this morning full of light
poetry is "these United States...the
greatest poem" (Whitman)
poetry is heartburn, bad gas
poetry is damp lawn furniture and bird
droppings
poetry is your thought just before the
door slams - and the next one just after
poetry is the slamming door
poetry is "a way of taking life
by the throat" (Robert Frost)
poetry is a single voice wailing and
twenty-three voices silent
poetry is a very old shirt yellow-striped
ugly blue
poetry is a girl who cannot write poems
poetry is "a mirror which makes
beautiful that which it distorts" (Shelley)
poetry is old gum, very old gum that
tastes like dead flowers
poetry is a body so carefully avoiding
other bodies
poetry is a boy too close to a boy a
boy
too close to a girl a girl too close
to a boy a girl too close to a girl
poetry is "adolescence fermented,
and thus preserved" (José Ortega y Gasset)