Poetry Is Not Meant For You Poem by Hasan Maruf

Too many poets with no esteem
Of taste or choice;
Inking intellectual humbug
With a hortative voice.

They pen out of
Exasperation, madness, fear and jealousy;
And of tantalization to be named among
The pantheon of Neruda or the great Rumi

They doctor themselves to be a sovereign of human emotion-
Too feeble and too frail to feast the synergy in universe,
They interpret the conversation of oceans and stars-
A dying folklore rotting in the footnote of nature's memoir!

A poet is not a poet until God is not projected into his works!
Opening the gulf of paradise into his soul to savor the Universe-
In quadruple, centuple or much more manifold sinuosity
To orchestrate every sensuous detail latent in the hourglass of time

If you cannot sculpt like Michael Angelo,
If you cannot paint like Picasso,
If you cannot compose like Beethoven,
Do not smear the universe with your kind!

If poetry does not wrench a soul or two;
To appear unasked out of your suppressed
Heart, mind, body and gut
Then it is not meant for you!

You may fly between the sun and clouds, moon and stars,
You may versify the impulses of animals and the crowds,
You may conjure an indelible legacy for all of men,
And, shape the entire topography of human civilization.

Yet, a poet is not a poet when divinity is not transmuted
In his pursuit to transcend the dominion
Of his measure and wealth
For a poet is not contemporary but an eternal man.