What makes a poet? <br /> <br />Many have tried to guess. <br />Is it a voice <br />like a conduit, <br />a plainspokenness to grief, <br />the hairs of the head <br />dancing on end, <br />the blood swarming <br />with the voices <br />of all those who have died, <br />will die, <br />& will also be born? <br /> <br />Is it a catch <br />in the throat <br />that awakens the eyes, <br />is it in the eyes themselves <br />or is it something <br />in the heart? <br /> <br />I think it is pain- <br />an openness to pain, <br />so that the least leaf <br />cuts the hand <br />& the smallest tear <br />cuts the cheek <br />like jagged crystal, <br /> <br />so that the world <br />is a sick infant <br />& the poet its mother, <br />praying, crooning, promising <br />to be good <br />if only the cure <br />takes. <br /> <br />There is, of course, <br />no cure. <br /> <br />Poetry does not cure <br />the poet <br />& the poet <br />does not cure the world. <br /> <br />Usually he catches <br />the world's diseases <br />& dies <br />even before his time. <br /> <br />But against all odds <br />& all indifference, <br />another one is born. <br />The world must have <br />someone to feel its pain <br />& speak of it. <br /> <br />The poet is that mouth.<br /><br />Erica Jong<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-poet-as-a-feeler-of-pain/
