Blue Mountain Arts Poetry Contest

We Poets
by Jaz

Eleventh Contest
SECOND Place

'Cause that's what poets do 
We look beyond what's obvious 
pulled into the spaces 
between the lines 
We look for the corners 
and the shadows 
drawn to trash-treasures 
and debilitating views 
We weave in wonder with waste 
We stand in front of the questions 
and chance a head-on collision 
with the answers 
we 
expose 
incinerate 
crash 
and create 
We're truth wearers 
We scream, cry, whisper, and sing 
the world's thinking 
The words turn us inside out 
throw us off cliffs 
and challenge us some more 
they hold us responsible 
for telling their stories 
for displaying their scars 
for shedding their layers 
for holding them in the night 
and promising daylight 
and they — the words 
deliver on miracles 
The words are mountains inside valleys 
illuminating abysses 
and sometimes shaking 
hands with them 
Our words slay dragons 
of misconceptions 
pull the blinders off perception 
and cut right through the grain 
Yeah 
our words stroll in Paris 
naked and unapologetic 
effective and unaffected 
'cause that's what our words do 
Poets welcome the edges 
and the unkept 
we eat the heels of bread 
and pocket eggshells 
We caress the discarded 
and hold mirrors up to humanity 
and we'd do best to keep 
that mirror on us 
for a gentle continuum 
of self-eval 
Healthiness 
Make sure pride 
doesn't tarnish the craft 
and heads stay small 
We are student 
as well as teacher 
we look on the words 
with amazement also 
We're healed by digest 
our own food 
feeds us too 
At times vulnerable 
other times anonymous 
too often synonymous 
with only happiness 
anger or sadness 
we 
are 
so 
much 
more 
We're a newborn's first breath 
and giggling high-school sweethearts 
We're seducing suns 
and pink beaches 
We are stage fright 
and therapy couch-dwellers 
We're apples and peanut butter sandwiches 
College kids choking on cigarettes 
We're gusts of wind that escaped 
through the cracks of windows 
We're leaky faucets that refuse to get fixed 
and 9 to 5'ers without deodorant 
We are sidewalks and stars 
Solomon and The Three Stooges 
We're Nyquil at dusk 
but wellness at dawn 
We're Tastykakes 
lemons 
and Sourpatches 
We're not always 
coming from honest places 
for sometimes we 
covet each others' light 
and try to wear 
another's skin 
instead of embracing our own 
We've got some growing to do 
We poets pray for 
courage 
strength 
and even acceptance 
Sometimes we're on pause 
sometimes just on empty 
and we don't always 
have a poem for you 
embrace us 
we need hugs too 
We'll keep on emptying 
ourselves out 
refilling 
risking and falling 
slipping and dancing 
soaring 
laughing 
living 
and 
writing 
For that's what we poets do.