Without Poetry I Write Poetry To Stay Alive Poem by Shalom Freedman

I AM WITHOUT POETRY


I am without poetry
Flat dead inside
Why?

Too much sickness of friends and relatives
Too much failure in my own writing life

I write these lines too
Without enthusiasm or hope
Or any great sense of meaning

An exercise to keep myself going
A small effort in the struggle to stay alive

Without Poetry I write Poetry to stay alive
A whole small poem for one line of meaning
Towards the end.