Eileen Tabios
Retirement Poem
I used to think a poem should sing; now I think a poem should think
—Jose Garcia Villa
So you hit that age / when you can look back / and reconsider / a life—your life
Making money to make / rent food clothes utilities / etcetera etcetera happen / can allow one to believe / one did something worthwhile
The problem with doing / something that does not / make money is that the act / highlights the act itself
—in this case writing poems—
for the inevitable question: / Are the poems any good?
which is to say, Was this life / of making poems…any good?
Perhaps a poet anticipates this / almost clichetic (re-)consideration
But to embark on a path of questions / means there always will be / at least one unexpected question:
Even if the poems are good / was the life of making them … / good enough? / Today a President / forced a baby to go to court / to answer a different question: / Why are you here, uninvited?
The baby reached out tiny hands / No one moved to hug him / Of such moments are cruel / Presidents made—a poet / might call this “another cliché”
An ending like this is how poets / earn their value: a reader may / leave for the courthouse to protest / by offering the baby a hug before / answering on behalf of the baby
Children are always invited / A nation does not become strong / pretending to be a cocktail party / with a four-figure admission fee
Later, the President would be kicked / out of the house he had darkened / a house created from the hopes / of many babies, a white house / because babies only know light— / the first thing they see when / they enter a world that will / introduce them to cruelty, but
also contain a poet who wrote / “Poetry is not words” / and readers who read such words / to shut the book, turn off computers / and leave their homes to make / a more hospitable, inviting world.
Eileen R. Tabios has released over 50 collections of poetry, fiction, essays, and experimental biographies from publishers in nine countries and cyberspace. Her books include a form-based “Selected Poems” series, The In(ter)vention of the Hay(na)ku: Selected Tercets 1996-2019; THE GREAT AMERICAN NOVEL: Selected Visual Poetry (2001-2019); INVENT(ST)ORY: Selected Catalog Poems & New 1996-2015; and THE THORN ROSARY: Selected Prose Poems & New 1998-2010. More information is available at eileenrtabios.com.
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