19 November 2008

michael grover

walking your own walk
michael grover

The syntax of the language
Gets in the way of the Poem.
Makes me stumble.
Needs to be corrected.

Spontaneous flow frowned upon.
Too natural for a world mechanical.
It's all just the word
Straight off the brain.
Naked and cold
In this chilly autumn night.
No blood washed off.
Too real, unprofessional.
Because let's face it,
america is a professional place.
Full of professional people,
Who all have their angles or schemes.
To not have an agenda,
Or one larger than the ego
You're like meat
In an all american shark tank.
You'll never last that long
Unless you toughen up.

These words fall from my head,
A sutra,
Unbroken string.
Cleaning the mind of impurities.
Cleaning the mind of rage.
Few people understand
My Poems are so angry
So I don't have to be.

I'm an outlaw,
But I follow the rules pretty much.
Don't do anything
To out of the ordinary.
I live a simple, mundane life.
I don't hide from anyone,
Or thing.
I print books of Poetry
Then walk into the neighborhood
To the post office to mail them out.

Right now it is Saturday night.
I am sitting in the corner of a coffee shop
Writing this Poem.
Drinking coffee,
Cool college kids smoke hookahs,
And talk about nothing
Trying to seem important.

The Poem is all that matters to me.
I've exited that material realm.
I do come back as an observer.
Looking into the illusion from the outside
You see it for what it is.

So I will finish this Poem,
Go back to my room
Type it up,
Walk away from it.

The syntax of the language,
Gets in the way of the words.
Which is all that should matter.
I am no expert,
Not an academic.
I have no credentials,
Only my own Poetic license
That I drew up myself
With a stick figure of myself.
Mostly self-educated,
Could not swim
In a professional pool
Of professional sharks and hit people.
Easily labeled,
Vote for this or that.
Labels don't stick that well to me.
Never been a follower.
I do drop in on this reality
And it brings a tear to my eye.
Like that native american guy
In that old commercial
Standing in the middle
Of all-american waste.

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