*****

Recorded Reading (2:07): https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/aspqbm3lulc3zumd3e3m7/Greatest-Poetic-Influence.mp3?rlkey=0jwwik6t5x0qr43ep2kgzf1x5&st=tcsrbang&dl=0

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“Who Has Been Your Greatest Poetic Influence?”

An hundred lights explode across
Mine inner universe
Any be a tragic loss
To the history of verse

Of them all, who would presume
To name one as the very best
And by that action so assume
To put in that one’s shade the rest?

To each hath come the sacred Word
A lovely blushing bride
Each her silent offer heard
Opened the heart, let her inside

Every one in special role
Hath played an unique part
In making up the plangent whole
Humanity’s poetic art

No one of them, their souls so pure,
Would puff themselves with pride
To stand all other lights before
Which properly sit side by side

Omar Khayam, Rabindranath
Rumi, Khalil Gibran
Each cut a superhuman swath
The universe of words upon

Pause and put a Hi-Lite marker
On inimitable
Daring Dorothea Parker —
Irrepressable!

Henry David, Robert Louis
Which one may we say was best?
Of literary lumens who is
Superior — Edgar Guest?

Passionate Pablo, Carlos Gutierrez
Elizabeth Barret, Divine Emily —
One single scribe only must we profess?
Jack London? The Bard? Or how ’bout e.e.?

The Shelleys, the Brownings,
Romantic Lord Byron
Elevate all things
They they linger on

Be there given to us just the one choice?
Of all I will choose
My own remembered mother’s voice
Reading me Mother Goose

*****

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