Adam Gottlieb, "Poet Breathe Now"

POET BREATHE NOW by Adam Gottlieb

everybody’s got something to say about poetry

           because rhymes peak in meaning shedding light on our unspeakables

           for an ample example

           take the other day when i sat not knowing how to write a poem

           and assuming I was fruitlessly booming the thin air

           I yelled and spat my frustration:

how do I start?

           and my dog looks up from her water dish and says

           “I hate to encroach on your ‘artistic space’

           cuz I know you're like ‘in-the-zone’ or whatever,

           but if you really want my advice here it is”

           and then my dog says

“poet breathe now –

            because it’s the last thing you’ll ever do for yourself.

poet breathe now because there’s a fire inside you that needs oxygen to burn

            and if you don’t run out of breath you’re gonna run out of time

poet breathe now because once the spot gets packed

            you gotta save that air for screamin, your --

            inhalation takes saviorisms to sky-highs

            you gotta go with the flowin of your own voice, poet.

            breathe now because once you spit you won’t even need air

            you'll be rockin rhymes respiratory,

            you’ll breathe poetry baby.

you breathe now and you’ll never forget that breath

            you got --

            pulsasive passages passing the mic

            and hot hallelujahs when verses you write

            and your sin is your savior your song is your life

            and your words are like wonders to wandering fifes pipin ceremony:

            poets you man, words you wife

            and your honeymoon orbits around your love like metronomic metros

            keepin time to the heartbeat of your heavenly drums –

poet breathe now because you might have something to say

            because peace might depend on your piece

            because you breathe

            and that air might help your brain tell your heart to keep pumping

            one more cycle and that blood might help your lips form one last word

            that hits the audience hard –

            because we are all made from the same elements

            and we all breathe the same air

            so celebrate our mutual recipes of existence

            by persisting to stay alive

            ducking sageless luckless ages

            like intellectual hippies!

when you take a breath

            the universe rings out like circular beats –

            landing planets are seraphim

            storms are spit –

            stars are soul candles!

            and you breathe like chest rebounds

            even when all hope seems lost

            our sounds pound mics

            like hope-stars

            like “we’re still here” hollas!

            we make angels of our nightclubs,

            bards of our bums,

            outlooks of our outcasts

            and infinity of our sums,

            we are the children of empathy,

            the pathos of slums,

            we heal like Helios

            like cyclical drums

            we enlist life from listless

            and sometimes

            even get things done

poet breathe now

            because once you start your piece

            you can die behind that microphone

            and

            death may be breathless

            but poetry’s deathless

            so breath be

            our savior

            eternal.

poets breathe once with me now

that’s one poem we all wrote.