Bunchgrasses & Bar . . . Hells Canyon, Northeast Oregon / Idaho . . .
On the road in the Northwest of America.

On the Necessity of Poetry

(1)

Walking from spring
to spring,

one tires quickly of all
the intellectual bushbeating,

telling me I’m
not thirsty
when I’m
thirsty.


(2)

Let’s be simple:

A house without a hearth
is a home without a heart.

After somebody lets the fire
go out, they always like to tell
you—that it wasn’t important.


(3)

Have you ever noticed that
bird calls are often answered
by silences of equal duration?

Who is to say which one—
the sound or the silence—
is the more important.


(4)

We are born naked; we make
love naked; and we die
naked;

Though not strictly necessary,
doing poetry naked seems to work
just fine, too.


(5)

Once the commons
are fenced in and sold,

on the very same ground
we’ll argue incessantly about—

the necessity of poetry.



| text from part IV of ON PATHS—82 shorter highcounty poems by Cliff Crego [pdf 908 K] |

NEW: To view / purchase different sized prints of this image at the
PhotoWeek Store click here. view as SLIDESHOW |
[http://www.shutterfly.com/pro/cliffcards/photoweek]