Become the Poem
For years I felt inadequate and as if
there was something missing in me,
because I couldn’t understand the poetry
my teachers insisted we read.
Sure, maybe if I tried my best,
I might pick up an idea or two.
Yet no one can understand
words beyond and irrelevant
to their lived experience.
This may be the sort of teaching
that turns people off to education.
And only a happy accident can hope
to ever turn them back on again.
I feel rather lucky because
one of my teachers so loved a poem,
her passion was infectious.
Now I too hear a voice inside of me
that only speaks in verse.
“If you cannot be a poet, be the poem.”
This poem was written on May 28, 2023.
©Brian Mueller - All rights reserved.
