The poet - <br />by whom I mean <br />an ordinary human being like you or me <br />who keeps a diary <br />of the mind and heart <br />and then publishes it <br />with luck <br />and maybe sells a few - <br /> <br />is a bit like one of those 'exotic' creatures <br />filmed on the ocean floor, <br />gracefully waving a hostess welcome <br />as if used to welcoming photographers <br />into its lovely home in this week's special issue <br />and such a delicate shade of pink its designer decor! - <br />but how to read it visually? <br /> <br />Are those waving fronds all the nerve ends <br />of this sensitive creature of the depths <br />of the human heart? <br />Or are they stinging antennae, <br />jealously defending its survival, <br />guarding its creative core <br />against all comers? <br />Or simply, like the elephant's trunk, <br />a means to acquire the food <br />to digest <br />with its prodigious memory longer than one man's alone, <br />into the poetry of the deep? <br /> <br />Beached on the floor of a commuter train <br />this delicate creature would be trodden under foot <br />as two-dimensional yuck; <br />but in its own environment <br />it secretly upholds humanity, <br />seeks the true in the unknown, <br />says new things about old minds, <br />teaches us to pause and think and see, <br />sings silly rhymes to enchant children, <br />shouts boldly or murmurs quietly <br />about goodness, truth and beauty, <br />and their opposites, <br />and deeply, deeply <br />loves.<br /><br />Michael Shepherd<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/0367-portrait-of-the-poet-as-sea-monster/
