Invent A Poem With A Winking Eye Poem by Rory Hudson

Invent a poem with a winking eye
That would enlarge its vision and be free
To let the whole damned world go passing by
Upon its way to hell, if need should be.

Laugh at the stories you're so often told
That solemn priests ordain your precious life.
It's not so precious: solemn food grows cold,
But you can pluck a verse to be your wife.

And you can dance, though worlds around you fall,
To rippling meters of some crafty ode
That woos the men who think they have the call
But leaves them splintered by the travelled road.

Your world is not for nothing - it exists
By reason of the beating of your heart.
Yet in that metronomic pulse persists
The joyous contrapuntal poet's art.

So write your poems with a winking eye
Upon your way to hell, if need should be;
Offer the world your laughter, pass it by -
Your poem is your vision to be free.