A world fit for love

Emerson was right
      : thought makes things
fit for use
      and Zukofsky echoed

There is no life
      without purpose
no exalted rose
      no winedark Aegean Sea
no beauty or truth
      no love

The poet’s task
      is to tell itas it is
to denounce the tyrant
      to laud good governance
to align with the poor
      with the aged
with the weak the infirm
      to petition for justice
to abhor each criminal act
      whatever its provenance

So Homer blindly sang
of Helen’s beauty
and of the strength and wit
      of Ulysses
and in poetry
      Dante delivered Beatrice
from hell’s depths
      Kosmos equals beauty
so thought makes a world
      fit for use and together
we make a life
      fit for love

John Lyons