When Poetry Is Real Poem by merry(merrypens) virgo

when literature is real
when poetry is real
when poetry is more than some game
of hide and seek
or some display of formal education
or some masturbation for our intellectual
friends
that's when things will change
consciousness will change
when it is real and people are not afraid
to say what's on their minds, not afraid to let
it out, not afraid to show us their inner lives
unmasked, unguarded, unadorned, not afraid
to tell us their hopes and fears, nightmares,
visions, not afraid to talk about what goes on in their
bedrooms, what goes on at the kitchen table,
the motel room, not afraid to tell us the
indiscretions, the lost faith, and most of all,
not afraid to show us the need that tears
us apart, the thing we drug and drown in drink,
the thing we distract ourselves from the thing
our marriages fail from for not embracing.
and when our poetry is in language any intelligent
man or woman can read, language that
comes directly from our fragmented,
hurting, imperfect, beautiful lives,
that's when poetry will become
relevant

by: merrypens :))