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Judgment

Some time ago,
I joined a 'dinner club' email list,
Looking for new friends.
 
One day a note comes in:
Someone announcing their poetry site.
 
I rushed right over to the site
Hoping I'd find a kindred spirit:
Someone who, like me,
Puts their feelings into poems,
And publishes their poems on the web.
 
I didn't find a single poem
That I liked worth a damn.
 
On the one hand I think:
Who am I to judge the work
Of someone who publishes on the web
As I do.
 
On the other hand,
I've read and appreciated
The work of great poets:
The famous ones printed in bestsellers
The homeless ones live at Stone Soup.
 
Should I be bold
And express an opinion?
Or should I hang back,
And not presume to say
What is good or bad poetry?
 
I learned from those poems
That I did not find a kindred spirit.
 
I think those poems sucked.
 



24 July 2001

by Bill Cattey