The brain and spinal cord <br />contain a hundred billion neuron cells <br />backed up by many more glial cells.. <br /> <br />each neuron surrounded by its dendrons <br />like a tree’s inquisitive, hungry roots <br />or a seacreature’s gently waving fronds <br /> <br />making synapses, new connections <br />between what one cell holds, and another, <br />as a tree’s roots seek its heavenly nourishment in earth; <br /> <br />so that, each time two words of poetry, <br />put together for the first time by a poet <br />in just that way, strike your mind or heart, <br /> <br />one of those neurons cries silently ‘Aha! ’ <br />as poetry’s roots and fingers touch its core; <br />two neurons now joined in holy bedrock.. <br /> <br />and since our mind, some say, is but our store <br />of memories previously received, <br />then poetry enjoyed, remembered, builds our greater mind; <br /> <br />and all this, like the champions of the Olympics, <br />so appropriately named after that godly height, <br />might well be described by corny commentators as, <br />sheer poetry in motion…<br /><br />Michael Shepherd<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-postmodern-explanation-of-poetry-for-mike-who-asked/
