Truth Poem by Tom Courtney

Interesting

Most poetry is fiction
not history
The content stories lives depicted
are not facts
They didn’t really
happen

Poetry is for the most part
the product
of my imagination
It happened in the neurons
History, as perceived, happened
in the world
Science, as understood, is
how the world is

Yet I believe that
good poetry expresses
a purer, at least a different, form
of truth

It is therefore my aspiration
to push aside the so-called facts
the science history and
the mountains of this
information-age data

and enter into the world
of my imagination
to deal with essences rather than
objectivities, not to narrate in type
but to paint pictures in words

I will speak plainly and simply
I will tell you my story
I will share with you my truth