Poems You Give Away, Poems You Keep

And are there any poems you would like to set free?

Poems You Give Away, Poems You Keep

There are poems you give away
and poems you keep. Ones you sell
on the driveway and ones you cherish
like an antique. There are poems
instantly forgotten and poems that visit
in sleep. Or read to yourself again
like a postcard written by hand
when people still did that sort of thing.
A love note scrawled again and again, with
different words but the same sentiment,
kept alive like a mouse batted around
by a cat who blinks and says out loud
You can get away this time, yes you can.
There are poems we ignore and poems
we can’t bear to let go, so we put them
in a shoebox which we open occasionally
to ask if it is okay being kept. The poem
is full of grace, it will stay, always
with a few things it would like you to see.
So take a look, hold it up to the air,
speak it and set it free.