Rules At A Poetry Reading

Poet
 shut up and read
 don’t take me for mean
 rude, harsh or abrupt but
 poet, shut up and read already
this is not the time to tell us
 where you were, what day of the week,
 what time of day, was it raining canines
 when this thunderbolt of insight spiked you
 how this poem birthed from your fertile imagination
 with labored pains of frustration, immolation of cliches
 a reading is not the time for dribbling about creation
 not the time for sniffing about how you like this new offspring
 nor how much slash ‘n burn it requires to collar you
 not the time for bonafide-o doggerel
 don’t tell us what blazes in the poem
 not the time for a line by line byline
 of what you meant to write but didn’t
 not the time to tell us in five minutes
 what your one minute poem is about
 not the time for dripping enthusiasm
 not the time for spewing commentary
 not the time for telling but showing
 show us the lining of the poem’s pocket
 show us fresh images rising like dew from morning frost
 show us by reading your poem those invisible walls
 those boundless edges that frame your words into pictures
 show us letter by syllable by word
 what emotions, devotions, or evocations
 you choose to leash us with
 show us; take us on your journey
 with all due respect, poet; get to it
 shut up and read



~J R Turek