{"id":7843,"date":"2022-10-17T20:17:42","date_gmt":"2022-10-17T20:17:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/?p=7843"},"modified":"2022-10-17T20:17:42","modified_gmt":"2022-10-17T20:17:42","slug":"poets-die-v2-poets-out-of-service-v6-2-poems-by-michael-lee-johnson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/poets-die-v2-poets-out-of-service-v6-2-poems-by-michael-lee-johnson\/","title":{"rendered":"Poets Die (V2) & Poets Out of Service (V6) 2 Poems By Michael Lee Johnson"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editor’s note: Frontpiece image title Poets Die Young List.<\/em><\/p>\n

Poets Die (V2)<\/strong>\r\n\r\n\r\nWhy do poets die;\r\n\r\nlinger in youth\r\n\r\naddicted to death.\r\n\r\nThey create culture\r\n\r\nbut so crippled.\r\n\r\nThey seldom harm\r\n\r\nexcept themselves\u2014\r\n\r\nwhy not let them live?\r\n\r\nTheir only crime is words\r\n\r\nthey shout them out in anger\r\n\r\ncry out loud, vulgar in private\r\n\r\nplaces like Indiana cornfields.\r\n\r\nIn fall, poets stretch arms out\r\n\r\ntheir spines the centerpiece\r\n\r\non crosses on scarecrows,\r\n\r\nthey only frighten themselves.\r\n\r\nThey travel in their minds,\r\n\r\nor watch from condo windows,\r\n\r\nthe mirage, these changing colors,\r\n\r\nthose leaves; they harm no one.<\/pre>\n
Poets Out of Service (V6)<\/strong>\r\n\r\n\r\nLike a full-service gas station\r\n\r\nor postal service workers\r\n\r\ndisplaced, racing to Staples retail\r\n\r\nfor employment against the rules of labor,\r\n\r\npoets are out of business nowadays, you know.\r\n\r\nWho carries a loose change in their pockets?\r\n\r\nWho tosses loose coins in their car ashtray anymore?\r\n\r\niPhones, smartphones, life is a video camera\r\n\r\nready to shoot, destroy, and expose.\r\n\r\nNo one reads poets anymore. \r\n\r\nNo one thumbs through the yellow pages anymore.\r\n\r\nWho has sex in the back seat of their car anymore,\r\n\r\njust naked shots passed around online?\r\n\r\nStreetwalkers, bleach blonde whores,\r\n\r\ncosmetic plastic altered faces in the neon night;\r\n\r\nthey don\u2019t bother to pick pennies\r\n\r\nor quarters off the streets anymore.\r\n\r\nThe days of surprise candy bags for a nickel\r\n\r\npennies lying on the countertop for\r\n\r\nTar Babies, Strawberry Licorice Laces\r\n\r\n(2 for a penny), Wax Lips, Pixie Sticks,\r\n\r\nGood & Plenty are no more.\r\n\r\nEveryone is a dead-end player; he dies with time.\r\n\r\nMonster technology destroys crump fragments of culture.\r\n\r\nOld age is a passive slut; engaging old age\r\n\r\nconversations idle to a whisper and sleep alone.\r\n\r\nMatchbox, hand-rolled cigarettes,\r\n\r\nserrated, slimmed down, and gone.\r\n\r\nTime is a broken stopwatch gone by.\r\n\r\nLife is a defunct full-service gas station.\r\n\r\nPoets are out of business nowadays.<\/pre>\n
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Michael Lee Johnson<\/strong> lived ten years in Canada, Vietnam era. Today he is a poet in the greater Chicagoland area, IL.  He has 244 YouTube poetry videos. Michael Lee Johnson is an internationally published poet 43 countries, several published poetry books, nominated for 3 Pushcart Prize awards and 5 Best of the Net nominations. He is editor-in-chief of 3 poetry anthologies, all available on Amazon, and has several poetry books and chapbooks. He has over 536 published poems. Michael is the administrator of 6 Facebook Poetry groups. Member Illinois State Poetry Society: http:\/\/www.illinoispoets.org<\/a>
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\nRobin Ouzman Hislop is Editor of Poetry Life and Times<\/a> at Artvilla.com <\/a>; You may visit Aquillrelle.com\/Author Robin Ouzman Hislop <\/a> about author & https:\/\/poetrylifeandtimes.com<\/a> See Robin performing his work Performance (University of Leeds)<\/a><\/p>\n
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Editor’s note: Frontpiece image title Poets Die Young List. Poets Die (V2) Why do poets die; linger in youth addicted to death. They create culture but so crippled. They seldom harm except themselves\u2014 why not let them live? Their only crime is words they shout them out in anger cry out loud, vulgar in private … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7847,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[960,808,796,366,401,43],"tags":[18,136,3],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7843"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7843"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7843\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7851,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7843\/revisions\/7851"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}