The Poet

I really have been enjoying some Tom Wayman poems I've been reading. It started out with "Did I Miss Anything?" and now I have come across another gem I really enjoyed.

This is another poem from the Poetry 180 catalogue. Look for some other great poems here.

He discusses who the poet is and how they behave in their life. What is hard for them? What makes them different from others? Some people are born artists; some people have different talents. This is the life lived of the poet, and it is very cool to interpret.

Enjoy.

The Poet

by Tom Wayman

Loses his position on worksheet or page in textbook
May speak much but makes little sense
Cannot give clear verbal instructions
Does not understand what he reads
Does not understand what he hears
Cannot handle “yes-no” questions

Has great difficulty interpreting proverbs
Has difficulty recalling what he ate for breakfast, etc.
Cannot tell a story from a picture
Cannot recognize visual absurdities

Has difficulty classifying and categorizing objects
Has difficulty retaining such things as
addition and subtraction facts, or multiplication tables
May recognize a word one day and not the next


What I find interesting is that the poem focuses on all the poet CAN'T do, not all of the great things he CAN do. Well, maybe that's implied, but it's really trying to show their short-comings and hang-ups. I guess it's kind of negative, but it seems to be a bit humorous too.

I like that the poem is written in fragments because it kind of shows the poet's fragmented mind, making it hard to articulate some things. I couldn't imgaine having the mind of a poet. Sometimes I wish I had as big of a vocabulary as they do though.

So, what do you think of "The Poet?"