Living as a Poet

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Living as a Poet

Living as a poet

is different

your mind’s eye must

uncover

what you see.

 Beauty

needs words

captured on paper

so the beauty won’t

escape like water
falling
through
a sieve.

Images need words,

so we can hold onto
a peaceful sunrise,
a child's embrace,
the look of love,
a mother with her child,
 keeping the beauty with us,
so we are

never abandoned,

never alone.

Images need words,

so the non-poets

can become more like us,

seeing the world

through our eyes,
our rose-colored glasses

recognizing beauty

and letting go of the cynicism and spite

just for  a moment.

Images need words,

The poet knows,

The poet will sit
for hours

with beauty,
trying to capture her essence.

Without words, you cannot
capture the Iceland landscape and sky.

On one side dark,

   a midnight blue hue

       sheltering the shadowed landscape.
The other side,

     the landscape of greens and grays and browns,

       that last as far as the eye can see with

         the starkness of the land,
              a sheep on the crest of a hill,

                  and amber hues covering the sky,
                  a warm blanket of comfort,

      Not even the panoramic camera

         can capture the shelter and warmth
              this landscape provides.

        Words need poets,
poets need words,
        the world needs poets,

                to tame the badness,

                    to find the goodness,

                         to seek shelter and warmth.