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.