It is Important that Our Nonsense Be Put to Good Use

I thought of another reason why I write poetry (aside from getting all the bitches).

Every emotion we've felt, all the things we've thought, and especially all the paragraphs we have ever written. . . has been done better some somebody else in the past. There have been too many good speechwriters, too many good movies, and too many good novelists.

That love note you wrote last week? Yeah, she probably would have preferred a different poem by some ancient poet, although neither of you know it. Those jokes you told? Some primeval comedian has already told them better, my friend.

So, sometimes poetry is an attempt to break down that wall. The wall that holds us doomed to echo what has already been said by smarter dudes in better ways. I'll never do it of course--I'm too damn stupid--but to continue the metaphor: Headbutting the wall is a more efficient way to break through it than taking a nap in front of it.

It is important that we all put our nonsense to good use.