Nobody Needs Poems, But Then Again

[Larry Robinson]

Nobody Needs Poems, But Then Again


I'm reading Jack Gilbert
on and on about the soul
and spirit, thinking, more
than forty years after high
school, I'm still trying to
figure out things, with
the wind dancing just
outside the small kitchen 
window, not the three
large windows that
appear as a prow of
a ship, especially at
night, lights of the city
vibrant, I'm thinking
of the world gone by,
I haven't even discarded
riches, I gave notice
long ago to the others,
I'd be over here, in
a small apartment, 
most of my books 
stashed across town
at Caz's or the bunch
in Arizona with Lynn,
clean and spare, yet
the poem, do I have
this endless searching 
within, in me, and if
so, why not just
kick back now, only
a few readers, not
out and about in
the larger poetry world,
it must be about the
spirit and soul and
coming close to
the essence of 
things, or at least,
talking about distance,
the changes, everyone 
going their own way. 
I know the wind makes
music with the trees.

	- Jack Crimmins