Tom's Nature-up-close Photography and Mindfulness Blog

Note:   Our internet crashed due to a violent storm.  I cannot correspond with any of you until it is fixed, hopefully in a week or two. My postings have been prescheduled, so they will continue.  It’s storming as this additional note is being typed on a tiny cellphone.

 

 

Note:  The following reflects my personal outlook regarding the best types of poetry; if the poetry that you write or that you happen to be fond of is not of the type that i most admire, it does not mean that it is not valid poetry for you; (it does not mean that it is not interesting to me ; one finds many types of poetry interesting).  Everyone has different tastes.  Please do not be offended if the following poem does not reflect your viewpoints on poetry.

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If it takes your breath away

           and helps you see the world with less fragmentation,

then that’s poetry

 

If it encourages you to take better care

           of Mother Nature and of yourself(who is part of her),

then that’s poetry

 

If it goes beyond mediocrity,sameness,and bourgeois values…

           causing you to not merely see through others’ eyes,

then that’s poetry

 

If it takes away the crass separation between

           the observer and the observed,

then that’s poetry

 

If it merely enthusiastically entertains you 

            without a profoundly deeper meaning,

then that’s not poetry

 

If it merely helps you to fit in

           with the copiers,the mimics,and the perpetually indifferent,

then that’s not poetry

 

If it fixates you with more mere details to maintain a blindspot 

           regarding truth for the rest of your so-called life,

then that’s not poetry

 

If it helps you to see

           beyond the ordinary,

then that’s poetry

 

If it peels away your stiff,robotic dependence

           on the patterns and symbols of others,

then that’s poetry

 

If it comes to you uninvited,silently in the middle of the night

           bringing immense insight,true bliss,and vast understanding,

then that’s poetry

 

If it helps you to actually feel

           rather than to merely mechanically react and think,

then that’s poetry