People are always asking ‘what’s the use of poetry?’ The mystery of language, the poetic imagination, and the mind of compassion are roughly one and the same, and through poetry perhaps they can keep guiding the world toward occasional moments of peace, gratitude, and delight.
—Gary Synder
A hammer lying next to a book
of poetry on a table is not a hammer.
The book of poetry is not a book of poetry.
I open the book and read a poem.
I close the book and place it
once again on the table:
Once again into nothing.
I pick up the hammer
some nails,
then go again to work.
What use am I?
(June 10, 2024)
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