Poets Should Write About the Nice Things

I’ve heard poets talk of the subjects they write about and one said something I have used as the title of this week’s poem. It struck me as an odd thing to say. Surely poets should write about anything and everything? I hope you agree with me …

“POETS SHOULD WRITE ABOUT THE NICE THINGS”

what about the teen junkie
who steals because his habit
has outgrown what he can lift                                   
from his mother’s purse

or the girl who breaks
into the neighbour’s house
takes the silver and pawns it
for five bucks to get a toke
what about her? should she be left
out of the picture? out of the poem?

what about the junkie’s dreams of rainbows
cascading down the sky
in kaleidoscopes of chipped colour?
what about the girl’s vision of roses blooming
from a crack pipe on weedy tarmac?
surely these are poems too?

A

A

To Bethlehem: ‘This little book is delightful, full of … poems on this timeless subject. … the most fun is the little prose vignettes of the common people in the Christ-child story. The slave who looks after the wise men’s camels, or the overworked maid at the inn who has to fetch water for the birth, and many more. A lovely gift for the reader on your Christmas list!’ Rosalind Adams. Available from Amazon and Kindle.