The Poet and The Man

CWK

A man sees a bridge – but the bridge is unseen.
A poet sees the heavenly connection between
two cleaved earthen plots,
A poet sees the bridge what God wrought
betwixt two seeming – I say seeming –
disjointed worldly tracts.

Man sees – but perceives not.
But the poet sees the connection between
two cleaved earthen plots.
A poet sees the bridge what God wrought
betwixt two seeming – I say seeming –
disjointed wordly tracts.

Poets eat bread; men will feast on leaven.
Where men see a train, on its tracks,
a poet sees two lines exact

stretching, like a child, toward heaven:
with the train, ever at his back.

Poets see the connection between men,
and counts every man a brother.
Poets the connection within men,
and draw one line to another.
A man sees the deed, but not the act –
the appearance, not the fact;
the show, but not the play –
and smiles with admiration.
A poet sees the deed to heart attached –
the shop, not the display –
and rips the playbill in frustration,

while men stand by in dim dismay.

Men conceive a world with chaos striven.
Poets see the peace where war is given.
Men lie, by oaths, forsooth,
but a poet feels the lie that bites like tooth.
and builds, and wields, a bridge by truth.
Men cover the bridges without within,
but poets uncover all the bridges hidden.

A man sees a bridge – but the bridge is unseen;
a man sees – but perceives not.
and conceives the reunion of all things,
and so while men are weeping,
the poet still finds songs to sing.

Poets see beyond seems to seams
to find a world intact.
Men see a world in disunion asunder
filled with disparate facts:
part from every part dissected.
Poets see a world connected;
poets see a world intact,
within a unity of wonder,
with myth and meaning intersected,
toward meaning directed.

A man sees what he came to see;
a poet sees what he sees:
what was, what is, and what may be.
Men pick flowers; poets consider the lilies.
Men count seeing as believing,
and ever doubt what poets believe,
but a poet knows believing is seeing –
and, by faith, his vision receives.