A Modern Paradox
A man of letters can only be true
to his art or his culture
- never the two-
Renowned to the degree
he prostrates himself to exigency
he'll wear the integument
of an intellectual immigrant
and know himself a subtle parody.
Should he aspire to the purely poetic
he'll risk that judgment will be swift
and his peers surely view him as
a nerdy narcissist who cannot feed himself.
March 26,1999
A paradox may seems contradictory, but in reality it's true.
Problems of a man of letters, a pure poet - are written with clearness and confidence!
There is too much pressure on Men of Letters so their creativity suffers...
Thank you so much for your comment. I am so behind in my replies, I will have to catch up. It's because I am very incompetent on new sites and manage not to be able to find the comments. I never realized at first that there were more than one pages to the comments sections....I will work on catching up...
You are so kind to offer comments so quickly when I upload a new poem. I need to withdraw from some oof the other sites I use because I cannot keep up. Thanks for your comment, my friend.
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
Now there's a paradox for you! A very entertaining poem. Thank you for sharing.