Arts & Entertainment

The Friday Poem: Only this

Each Friday Benicia Patch will publish an original poem. If you would like to submit your own poem please send it to benicia@patch.com.

Only This  by  Hugh Lemma, Surprise, AZ

If I knew
you'd never read this,
I'd write it
anyway;

neither 
my anonymity
nor your indifference
is sufficient to quell me,

but rather
the inevitable depletion
of all possible arrangements
of words,

my inability
to recycle themes
and repackage clichés
(which is what poets really do).

In the meantime,
you may know me
if you wish.

Following is the commentary by Benicia Patch poetry maestro Jeff Burkhart:

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Today’s Friday poem is entitled, “Only This” and was written by Hugh Lemma of Surprise, Arizona. I sat with this poem for a while. I believe Mr. Lemma is speaking to an artist’s lack of control over the destiny of their work. A person can write a poem, paint a picture or create a piece of sculpture. At the point the piece is released in any form, there is randomness to who will read or be touched by the work. In the case of a poem, I liken the paper to a bottle and the words are the message contained within it, set adrift in the boundless sea  to be discovered by some unknown reader or better yet, readers.

I hope our forum here at the Patch finds you many people who wish to know you through your poem, Mr. Lemma.

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Best wishes to you and all our friends in Surprise, Arizona.

 

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