Real Poetry Is Mostly Not Poem by James McLain

Real poetry isn't an opinion or a quote.
And without an equal measure of pain that real
True pain,
Pain that turns your guts inside out, well it's not
About never having and never lost.

My favorites are those who've committed suicide,
That one act that cannot be taken back.
Poetry isn't trivial advise in the pursuit of
What never is.

There must be enough information for the reader
To use in thought but not to much to loose sight of
What it is that many different think.

If you reread it and give it extra thought a poem is
Though without spending thousands of hours,
Rereading the dead a master is.

A good poem may come by accident a bad one can have many
Wasted hours in it,
Confidence is a true believer in one's self,
But garbage is.

Like surfing, like any discipline you have to pay your dues
And no one becomes popular by telling the hard truth.
Mistakes in punctuation and editing can be corrected but
Nothing can help a poet more than love, loss and pain and suffering
A poet is.