The power of poetry

The energies of meaning
           that power the poetry
in which sounds and sense
           vie for our attention
in which nouns acquire
           the emphatic thrust
of verbs of action
           love and rose
and time and tide
           all tied to the kinetics
that accumulate past
           significances
and propel them
           into the future
a horse for a kingdom
           by any other name
and whether it is nobler
           that the rich should steal
relentlessly from the poor
           poetry that wades in
to lift the smokescreen
           to tell it as it is :
to announce and to denounce
           the felonies of greed and avarice
and the hard-heartedness that
           would demean our neighbours

What molecules of water
           perceived within
the heaving ocean !
           On a sunswept day
years ago I have seen
           trout leaping
in the crystal waters
           of an Irish river
affirming in so doing
           the endless bounty of life
and so of love and all the words
           that bind us

John Lyons