if i was a poet
i would proudly take centre stage
and if i was a poet
i would sit for hours and stare at the page
and contemplate the nature of my verse
before i let even one solitary word stain
the purity of the pulpy parchment before me
and if i was a poet
i would publish my work formally
but equally i would speak it
audibly to audiences of
revolutionaries and freedom fighters
later day intellectuals and midnight writers
and if i was a poet
i would light fires in their minds
remind that poetry is about more than rhyme
that poetry is about reason and
achieving something deeper than reaction
and if i was poet
i would to teach them that acting
and posturing is lost on those
who know the feeling that poets capture
while mere mortals are in rapture
at the way metaphors encapsulate feeling
we don't realise that pure genius
manifests itself in the words
the world is built on
and if i was poet
i would write a folk song
just to evoke images of longs nights
spent high on bob dylan's prologue
to our collective misspent youth
and if i was a poet
i would strive to right the truth
if i was a poet
i would stay true to my poetic roots
suitably abuse my walking boots
and spend the rest of my life bunning zoots
if i was a poet...
but as it stands i'm just one man
lost, wandering the badlands
with a pen in his hand
