poetry :: select

when you hear brilliant works
Wordsworth Beethoven
do you recall
their philistines shouted them
avant guard idiots

we have those who condemn
who wish the art to gentrify
who forget their ancient brethren
detested their supposèdly safe heroes

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

we have the duty
to suffer the failed new
to seek the diamond in the charcoal

but those who don't try
who stand on the outside and piss in
who contribute nothing
they just abuse the taste
their predecessors hated

we who write
we poets
we must push push
must risk

our glist may die before us
with us
but may survive the fifty years of staid
for some future child
born beyond the death of all the living now
to glint our work awake