Knowledge

I.

What makes someone a poet, I do not know,
but think it 
a meaningful question.

The purpose flows
from someone who for most of his life
has been living questions,

not as much directed to mechanics
as to how and why 
we are captured by shared emotion 

in reaction to patterns of light, 
to shape, to sound,
and patterns of communication;

even perfume, all of which
may represent beauty
when perfected in a certain way.

And these patterns represent a truth
that has been shared
across ages, languages and cultures.

We know it’s emotional behavior,
but what makes it so,
causing some way shared human response?

So what, indeed, makes a poet?
They’ve been present in all times and places
where words have been, 

as far back as dwelling in caves.
That much we know.
So, why now, why have I been afflicted?

II.

It must be a response to words
and the sound of words
stuck together in a rhythmic line.

I remember such from my childhood,
that like lullabies
that would calm and put me to sleep;

then, grade school and the posters 
each child must make 
with a picture representing a poem.

Then high school freshmen English,
where most boys were expected to protest, 
I loved the sound

and, so, tried to write small poems
which then I hid or tore up 
less someone see them.

And, finally, to college: 
Emily Dickenson, Robert Frost, e.e. commings: 
for a while time out. 

I started writing poetry my senior year. 
I had three rules:
Descriptions must be accurate,

the language smooth
to facilitate oral reading,
the emotion true. 

Why I became a poet, I still don’t know.
I just wanted to know if I could,
then when I had a few published, 
it became: Set! Go! 

That was 60 years ago and I’m still writing. 
By now it has become both habit 
and a need.