Whether we bring to words some wilderness of chaos
or sing of all things passionate and good,
the currency in which we trade is never mocked –
judgment comes and the poem in the shredder
is forgotten long before the song sent into the light.
With words reckless or calculated, smooth or unkempt,
and with effect subliminal or overtly obvious,
sooner or later the poem made must stand before its maker
and be judged worthy of wings of freedom – or consigned to
the hungry doom where silence roars.
The author was a Regents’ Professor of Classics in a large public university for a number of years. He has published numerous books (Thames & Hudson, Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, etc.), and many articles and poems under his own name or Richard West and other pen names.
