Who Is A Poet

Who judges what is and is not poetry?
Who has the authority to say…poet?

Lines of trite intellectual profundity
slathered on a page with a picture and
the obligatory MFA bio or wilderness wanderer
dressed in a beaded headband costume of choice .

Stinging our minds with their personal indulgence,
subjecting the reader to their clinical suffering.
These circles of self proclaimed intellectuals
closing out all the Grandma Moses of verse.

There is the honestly in the words of first graders,
their child wonder searching for expression
not blessed with an adult life shaped by scars.
Are they the true poets – the innocence unappreciated?
Will critical analysis, structure and context
steal their talent making them a poet?

Who judges what is and is not poetry?
Who has the authority to say…poet?

Is this poetry?

Copyright: 2008, Donald Harbour