Friday Poem: "Address to the Converted"

Address to the Converted

                           1
How wonderful to preach to you
To clutch this podium and play with words
To know that you are with me irrespective
That whatever I say you will strive to believe
It is an honor for me to indulge myself

                           2
Still I am obliged to utter some caveats
First is this: I have nothing to tell you
Nothing new to add to your perplexity
To elucidate Swir’s ‘monstrosity called life’
There will be no illuminations on this day
Unless it be that you have a rude awakening

                           3
Second my assurance that of all the fools
Present here I am the first among you
A willingness to be deceived is foolish
And you are distinguished in this respect
But I vainly deceive myself as well as you
For only self-deception could bring me here
Now tell me is there a greater fool than that
Who skewers himself even as he beguiles you

                          4
Why do you not rise from your seats and leave
Think you this a ruse a mere titillation
Whetting  your appetite ere the golden moment
How willingly you are gulled how easily led
This golden morsel less even than fool’s gold
For it resembles a baseness of no metal

                           5
Let me treat a question:  Todorov asks
‘What remains of poetry if verse is removed’
To which I add one equally provocative
What remains of prose if meaning is removed
And: of song what remains without sound
And of reality if there is no truth
My message: I lead you to where you are
And to the crowning question: what remains

                        6
I advise that you make nothing of this
And I in turn will do likewise
In fact these moments are already forgotten
A fleeting  sensation of uneasiness
Gone as quickly as you leave this room
A leaf in the wind that brushes by
On its way back to earth
Which may not remain either

12/23/05-1/4/06

Copyright 2006 by Maurice Leiter

Posted with permission.