Advice to a Young Poet (When I Find One)

“But Poetry's dead,”
they say
“And Song and Drama, Painting too!
No Muse. No Bard.
To write in verse and meter's
simply wrong and rhyme
is only for a greeting card.
There's nothing more to say.
It's all been said.”

“Not so!
If you, like me,
must answer to the call,
we have to reach
beyond the blasè bred conventions
of the unconventional.”
Say I,
“Keep writing.
Read.
Don't borrow, take.
Revise.
Scan jargon, slang,
but keep it true.
Record your dreams.
Re-heed mistakes you make.
Clichès are lazy.
Tweak the old anew.
Just overhear
a girl with doll declare her sorrows.
Hark when drunken sailors swear.”