I Used To Be A Poet

Writers will understand this. Every once in a while a thought enters your head that is fully formed. All you have to do is write it down.

I USED TO BE A POET

I used to be a poet

Way back in the day

Long before the sleek

Looking machinery

That manufactures words

At the speed of light

Was even dreamt of

I used to be a poet

When words were measured

Carefully and thoughtfully

When love and passion

Dripped from every one

Like honey from some

Overachieving beehive

I used to be a poet

When I could make

Subconscious thoughts

Churn and bubble

A witches cauldron

Of fear and anger

Of anxiety and longing

For everything from justice

to a good old fashioned fuck

I used to be a poet

When everything was cool

And everyone could find

The deeper meaning

When inflections were like chords

That no one had played before

And they were so rich

And strange and full of the unknown

I used to be a poet

When my mind was free to wander

And I was always invited to

Tag along, taking notes

And shaping them into

Little anthems to whatever

Was going on, going strong

Going right, going wrong

Going, going, gone

I used to be poet

But nowadays

I have to reach way back

To find those things

That came so easily

Those thoughts that would drift

On the tide of all that I

Was so connected to

When I used to be a poet

Jim Murray

From Dirty Hymns Vol 8