2 new poems by John Yamrus

HE

didn’t
see poetry
as anything special.

it was
just a part of him.

a
part of
what he did…

every day.

he’d get up in the morning,
have his coffee…

walk out
with the dog

and
write a poem.

he
never went back
to correct or change a line.

they
just were
what they were.

he
said he
learned it
from the dog,
who (he claimed)
was a better poet than him.

CARL

had
strange
reading habits.

he read
thru the books
on his shelves alphabetically.

he
was right now
working on Pound, Proust and Poe.

he
loved
Proust, hated Poe
and had no opinion on Pound

Carl
was also
an aspiring writer of sorts,

but
he knew he
didn’t have what it took.

besides,
he also had a cough
that was long and ragged and rough

and
he could actually taste
the blood back deep in his throat.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

In a career spanning more than 50 years as a working writer, John Yamrus has published 35 books (29 volumes of poetry, 2 novels, 3 volumes of non-fiction and a children’s book). He has also had nearly 3,000 poems published in magazines and anthologies around the world. A number of his books and poems are taught in college and university courses. He is widely considered to be a master of minimalism and the neo-noir in modern poetry. His latest books are TWENTY FOUR POEMS and SELECTED POEMS: THE DIRECTOR’S CUT. A volume of his SELECTED POEMS was recently published in Albania and TWENTY FOUR POEMS is due out in translation later this year.

Image created on Stable Diffusion 2- 1