Do they call it a poem? It’s a poem.

Does it look like a poem? It’s a poem.

Read it. Relish it. Savor it in your mouth

Savor it in your ear and in your heart.

Does it feel like something real? More than

Real? Does it drug you with its puissance?

If you cried or laughed from beauty it is a poem

If you moaned or spat at its truth it is a poem

If you felt nothing, it is merely scrap to you

Though do not conclude that it is not a poem

Others may laugh or cry or think or die

Over a verse you choked on – insipid

Though it may be, the verse of your contempt

May hold holy revelation to others.

David M Pitchford 11/29/25