THE CONVERSATION

Poetry is a conversation among poets
whose words if overheard
may inspire our dreams and desires
and help us discover what it means
to be human, how to share
and to care for life in this world.

It’s rich in metaphors and similes
painting word pictures that
may give us tantalizing glimpses
at life’s underlying mystery.

It’s stories of great visions,
revelations, romances and tragedies,
or an ancient prophesy writ on clay tablets,
or the history of the stars scribbled
in pencil on the back of an old paper sack,
or a simple tale of a child’s
day at play typed on the latest laptop.

It’s a homemade pie,
a dying soldier’s last letter,
a single bird singing…
and the first and last breath
that you take.