Learn to Wonder

How much meaning makes a poem?

Need it be anything at all?

What if I told you about a poet

An old man who knew he was a sage

Just no one else heeded his cardboard signs.

That man of wisdom had the secret to poetry

Though he didn’t know many words

His poems were plain

And so was his expression

Etched on that torn slab that once housed a refrigerator

Honest and true

They weren’t descriptive, no. Nor did they contain

Some special secret to human life

This man didn’t bother with

hidden meanings

or lacy wordplay

It wasn’t necessary

 

You’re beautiful today.

Look at that cloud!

Every snowflake is different.

 

The funny thing is

If people stopped to read his poems

They would have learned more than

Anybody ever learned from Elliot or Shakespeare.

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