Skip to main content

Poem by Todd Swift for National Poetry Day (UK)

Poets across the UK are reading and otherwise celebrating National Poetry Day.  A perfect day to support Eyewear Publishing and order one of our first three collections, now out.

 Here's a poem from a recent collection of mine, to share with you.

It’s not a poem unless it’s seen


It’s not a machine unless home-grown.
It’s not a phone unless it types by horse.
It’s not a hearse unless you get out born.
It’s not a greenhorn unless it blows.
It’s not a rose if it smells like glass.
It’s not a pass if you fail to kiss.
It’s not a miss if you knock it out.
It’s not a parka if it’s sprayed on.
It’s not a tan if you wash it off.
It’s not a cough if you want it to be.
It’s not a bee if it floats like a bag.
It’s not a nag if there’s no dream.
It’s not a scream if you smile.
It’s not a mile if seven leagues.
It’s not cigs if you’re running rings.
It’s not a song if you speak.
It’s not weak if it is song.
It’s not wrong if you write it down.
It’s not a clown if it won’t  mime.
It’s not rhyme if you can’t recall.
It’s not small if it fits in your head.
It’s not dead if it stands up to pee.
It’s not me if you dream it instead.
It’s not lead if gold in them hills.
It’s not pills if you don’t feel better.
It’s not a sweater if a garter snake.
It’s not cake if no ice cream.
It’s not a beam if no deep mote.
It’s not a quote without fingers.
It’s not singers if they faked.
It’s not a lake if no lady.
It’s not shady if you start to blister.
It’s not sister if no kid.
It’s not id if you forget the ego.
It’s not meagre if lots of plenty.
It’s not mentis without compos.
It’s not piss without the taking.
It’s not making unless there’s breaking.
It’s not talking unless you listen.
It’s not glisten unless light.
It’s not sight unless a Milton.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

IQ AND THE POETS - ARE YOU SMART?

When you open your mouth to speak, are you smart?  A funny question from a great song, but also, a good one, when it comes to poets, and poetry. We tend to have a very ambiguous view of intelligence in poetry, one that I'd say is dysfunctional.  Basically, it goes like this: once you are safely dead, it no longer matters how smart you were.  For instance, Auden was smarter than Yeats , but most would still say Yeats is the finer poet; Eliot is clearly highly intelligent, but how much of Larkin 's work required a high IQ?  Meanwhile, poets while alive tend to be celebrated if they are deemed intelligent: Anne Carson, Geoffrey Hill , and Jorie Graham , are all, clearly, very intelligent people, aside from their work as poets.  But who reads Marianne Moore now, or Robert Lowell , smart poets? Or, Pound ?  How smart could Pound be with his madcap views? Less intelligent poets are often more popular.  John Betjeman was not a very smart poet, per se....
3 comments
Read more

"I have crossed oceans of time to find you..."

In terms of great films about, and of, love, we have Vertigo, In The Mood for Love , and Casablanca , Doctor Zhivago , An Officer and a Gentleman , at the apex; as well as odder, more troubling versions, such as Sophie's Choice and  Silence of the Lambs .  I think my favourite remains Bram Stoker's Dracula , with the great immortal line "I have crossed oceans of time to find you...".
1 comment
Read more

THE SWIFT REPORT 2023

I am writing this post without much enthusiasm, but with a sense of duty. This blog will be 20 years old soon, and though I rarely post here anymore, I owe it some attention. Of course in 2023, "Swift" now means one thing only, Taylor Swift, the billionaire musician. Gone are the days when I was asked if I was related to Jonathan Swift. The pre-eminent cultural Swift is now alive and TIME PERSON OF THE YEAR. There is no point in belabouring the obvious with delay: 2023 was a low-point in the low annals of human history - war, invasion, murder, in too many nations. Hate, division, the collapse of what truth is, exacerbated by advances in AI that may or may not prove apocalyptic, while global warming still seems to threaten the near-future safety of humanity. It's been deeply depressing. The world lost some wonderful poets, actors, musicians, and writers this year, as it often does. Two people I knew and admired greatly, Ian Ferrier and Kevin Higgins, poets and organise...
1 comment
Read more