An Urgent Summons Poem by Daniel Brick

A response to NEGLIGEE AGAINST THE MOONLIGHT
by Robert Murray Smith



Six times in your Love Poem
she surprises you, and we share
the surprises. Did she intend so many?
Did you expect them? I doubt it,
not because I don't believe in
Love's insistent invention of
passion, or its twists of
delight. Such sweet things
make up the narrative of
a love affair, whether its
measureof time is
the passionate moment or
a lifetime shared.
I admit I am speaking
to you poet to poet,
because your poem
is a necessary poem, it is
the poem all of us must write
after we acknowledge
the pervasiveness of love,
everywhere we stand or move or
just exist in our essential being.
How I wish I could scatter these words
like refreshing rain or sunshine or -
You get my point, poet to poet.
Your poem released an urgent summons,
and as more read it, the summons will
swell in their hearts, as it has in mine.
(Finally, I can write the simple truth -
which poet to poet we know is never
sleight of hand, or first draft success.)

Oh, how much I want to use an unaccustomed
voice, and shout my agreement, so that
even those in range of poetry, who are
distracted by things trivial or deep,
will be gripped by your summons
to the achievement of love:
People - Friends - All of you,
your senses must engage with keener passion!
Your minds must grasp with clearer passion!
Your souls must swell with fuller passion!