poetry :: select

when you hear brilliant works
Wordsworth Beethoven
do you recall
their philistines thought them
avant guard idiots
those boorish fools wouldn't listen
they never sought originality's reward

we too have those who condemn
who wish artists to repeat
who forget their ancient brethren
detested their supposèdly safe heroes

we benefit from our past's enlightened ears
who heard their avant guard
and selected

now it is our turn
our duty to hear new work
to seek the diamond in the charcoal

so much will
fail imitate misguide

but you might
as I did
hear a first performance
that changes music*

or find the lines to rescue
english poetry from the bog
recognise them
and help the poet shout

but those who don't try
who stand on the outside and piss in
who contribute nothing
to now
to the future
to the art
they just abuse the taste
their predecessors hated
they're cultural parasites

and we who write
we poets
we must push
push the way forward
we must find those lines
that form
that'll mend the poetry
we must lead them out

and usually
be wrong

we can never know
if the future hears us
only that we try

our efforts may die with us
before us
but they might survive the fifty years of staid
for some future child
born beyond the death of all the living now
to discover excite enthuse
to know the context
to wake our work again

we cannot know
we must try

*IMHO Steve Reich's "Different Trains"