WHY DO YOU BOTHER TO WRITE POEMS? BY BRIAN DOYLE

Is the question from the back of the room; I cannot

Quite see the student asking it, but it’s deep-voiced

And challenging and I assume it’s a guy. Because I

Want to rub music and language together and gawk

At the flames, I say. Because poetry, if it takes fire,

Cracks people’s masks, and assaults arrogance, and

Sucks you beneath the surface of words towards why

We use them. Because we have been singing before

There ‘were’ words and it’s healthy to remember that.

Because the great poems are about you and me both

And there is damn little we will be able to discuss

In the normal flow of the river and it’s good for both

Of us to stand together quietly for a while in a poem.

Because why the hell not ? What is it exactly that we

Should count as time better spent ? You cannot spare

Two minutes for a poem ? Sure, it might be pompous

Arty muck, and you demand your two minutes back,

But what if it isn’t ? What if it shivers you, or startles

You awake, or makes you weep remembering a time

When you sang all day too, and everything was made

Of music and light and colors and slabs of shimmer ?

‘What if’, brother – that’s my answer to your question.

(C) Brian Doyle

• What’s your answer to the question, Why Do You Bother to Write Poems?

• Have you ever stood quietly with someone else in a poem? What was the experience like? What shifted between you and the poem and the person you stood with? Journal your experiences.

• What if? Write a poem exploring what can happen when a poem shivers you or startles you awake.