The Poets
Thomas DeFreitas
Poets are followed by erring men. Behold how aimlessly they rove in
every valley, preaching what they never practice. The Koran 26:224-6, trans.
N. J. Dawood
Poets are followed by erring men!
Behold, how aimlessly they rove
In every valley,
Intent on every kind of sin:
And see, how drunkenly they move
Through street and alley!
Poets are women, wild and weird!
They crave the strangest company:
Their own reflections.
Then there's the bard with scraggly beard
Who sees things other folk don't see
And scorns corrections!
Poets are children with gray hair:
It's inappropriate for such fools
To shatter silence.
But they'll fling words across the air
And unrepentantly break rules
With joyful violence!