Friday Poem: "Lesson Two"

Lesson Two

               I
A false word makes
A doomed poem
Throws no shadow
Won't show on film

              II
Easy virtue
May cozen you
Seeking comfort
You lie with it

             III
But writing
A voice will say
Wrong wrong
The poem will die

             IV
And choiceless
In the hard dark
Heart stumbles
At soul's flaw

             V
Which it must rout
Like alien spawn
And for art's sake
Forsake the poem


8/15/96-4/23/97, 1/27/98, 2/9/98, 4/6/98                                                   

Copyright 1997, 1998 by Maurice Leiter
Posted with permission.