Dead poet of irrelevance

If the task of the poet is to represent his age
For a posterity far removed from every page
Then the world will end and none shall be read
For much longer than a crust of bread
Took to be consumed at the poet’s table.
If the world is to be constructed through each blighted verse
The world seems now a little more crude and perverse
For all the misrepresented personalised interpretations
Painfully birthed in the fire of mortal frustrations
Tailored to fit some rhythmic pentameter or free verse
That appeared sometimes witty, at others, terse.

A poet is an irrelevant thing, a relic from a bygone age
When there was no television or newsworthy page
To entertain the masses the poet aspired to reach,
With veiled meaning, to instruct, amuse or teach.
A poet’s life is a terrible and often miserable construction
Being seldom read when they preach innovative destruction.

So when the poet inks his works for mass consumption
You can be sure that there had to be a slick introduction
And that the labours each and every poet creates in hunger
Are nothing more than efforts to keep himself younger,
And free from the effects of starvation and stock trade plunder.

Responses

2 comments so far.

1. Rick Brown says:

   Good writing justin, I get it. Poets like Edger Allen Poe are going instict. But poets in general are not, I think they are being transformed into songwriters. Which their is a lot of them.

2. Orpheus . says:

   Thank you for your comment. My favourite poets took their time to craft their message. Most of us are trying to connect with ourselves and we use whatever tools are at hand - tabloids, the radio and MTV. A poet needs other poets to feed his or her art. Today, these poets are songwriters so poets must look to the past and the present of their craft to create something independent, human, beautiful and relevant. Poetry must remain an art in its own right for it to be worthwhile.