Why I am not a poet.

A realization: Writers are a lonely, self-absorbed bunch out to guard their jelously held territory at any cost. Consequently, I have decided to give up writing verse.

Giving up writing verse, means that I will now have to fully explicate the ideas behind the short line, the brush stroke, the gesture and the wink. Spelling out the obvious (at least to me) has always been drudgery but must be done to spread these sorry writing wings.

But there is more. By leaving verse behind, because I can't really call it poetry which seems so much more professional, I also am leaving behind the feeling that I am an outcast in the poetry circles.

If you look at this sidebar and read these writers, you get the sense that they are so much more part of an exclusive club. Who use the word "poetics" and "discourse."

I like to read poems that tell me something about myself, that tell a story, that offer light. I like poems that are like me: readable, not too dense and certainly not full of themselves.

I worked at this craft, again avoiding the word art, with the idea of creating work that was, at the end of the day, readable. No symbolism. No nuanced glimmerings. No posing at anything more than I am. A construction worker who valued spending time unwinding at a keyboard.

But it is time to go now and try to form my thoughts into the short essay. Maybe the essayists are happier.