the young poets

Count the beats, mark the meter, deconstruct the poem.
Only then will you know it, understand it.
John Senior taught us well.

Because I am old —
A poem must have rhyme.
It must have meter.
Count the syllables, count the meter.

Because I am old —
My poems must be structured.
My poems must rhyme.
Or they are not poems, but…Smith and Gorman.

The beauty of the words —
The young poets,
The beauty of the words —
The emotions —
The painful meanings —

Read them slowly so the book will last.
Read them again to delight in the beauty of the young poets.