If You Wanta Be a Poet...

by

If you wanta be a poet,
You gotta look for poetry

in everything you see;
Like a squirrel eatin' corn

sittin' up in a tree;
Or an old colored man

with a baseball cap,
Sippin' a Coke, takin' a nap,
With dirty red rags

hangin' outta his pants;
Or a woman playin' poker,

takin' a chance.
You gotta look for poetry

in everything you see.

Like a bird-tower there

for a Viet-Nam vet,
Or a boy catchin' crabs

with a little cast-net;
Or a big river boat

by the cemetery.
You gotta look for poetry

in everything you see.

Like a flashin' red light

by the railroad track,
And a train goin' by

goin' clackity-clack.
You gotta look for poetry

in everything you see.

Like a Taco Bell

with flag waivin' high,
Silhouetted against the

pretty blue sky.
You gotta look for poetry

in everything you see.

Or the Inn on the Bayou

near Interstate Ten,
And a welcome sign

saying, "Come right in!"
Gotta look for poetry

in everything you see.

Like a Cajun catching crabs

on the Calcasieu,
Or a tanker loaded down

goin' up the Bayou.
You gotta look for poetry

in everything you see.

If you wanta be a poet,

you gotta look for those poems;
You gotta see that poetry;

and you gotta write it down.
YOu gotta look for poetry

in everything you see.

It helps if you have

somethin' to say;
But even if you don't,
Write some poems anyway;
You gotta look for poetry

in everything you see.

You'll write good poems

most of the time;
And most people like 'em

better if they rhyme;
But even if they don't,

don't let that stop you.
Just look for poetry

in everything you see.

NEXT?
Why don't you look at Every-Year Valentine
by: Joyce Hemsley
from: Sunderland, England, UK

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