Do not ask me why I write poetry
nor for whom I write poems.
You will not be pleased by the answer.
You assume I have an audience in mind
when I pick up the pen and put it to paper.
That would be a false assumption
for only the occasional poet writes
with a specific audience in mind.
The rest of us write out of a need
and an urge we cannot set aside.
We do compose collections and, with luck
place them out into the world
where they will be discovered or,
more likely ignored, but few if any
readers buy a journal or book of poems
because they know the contents beyond
the poets prior work they read, or
what the blurbs on the back cover say.
So, yes, I write for myself for I
am the only audience I know will
read the words for better or worse.
And while I am always pleased to share
my words with readers such as you,
you must know that when you read
the lines I have crafted you are
actually writing your own poem
after mine, as writers like to say.