The Answers

We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for. To quote from Whitman, "O me! O life!... of the questions of these recurring; of the endless trains of the faithless... of cities filled with the foolish; what good amid these, O me, O life?" Answer. That you are here - that life exists, and identity; that the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse. That the powerful play *goes on* and you may contribute a verse. What will your verse be? John Keating


The Answers
come in
like the tide;
The Great Wave.
It threatens me,
but then
recedes into safety.

Just like sand
at a beach,
I can't
hold onto it
for long.
It slips through
my grasping fingers.

And washes
away into
the deepest
darkest
sea of reason.

I stand and wait.
Pulled out a
little further
by the current
wide.

Here am I.
Seasoned, and
Tried.

I cast my line.