CABAL

Do you have to join a cabal
to get into the poetry world?
Its tall minarets so faraway
centres of learning full of brahmins
codes and protocols
passwords and open sesames
you may lose your head
trying to answer their riddles
be laughed out of court
or completely ignored.

Have you properly learned the craft?
It's sophisticated like a jazz quartet
can you transcend the barriers
and take the A-train

can you be part of the conversation?

So you're a natural, a romantic
the daffodil and the sunflower
and the red, red rose,
but can a ploughman poet cut it these days
compose the poem of poems, the song of songs?

Maybe a Kareem Abdhul Jabar
with a long reach, long-lined
poem like Mahon's Hudson river
exclusive that ivory tower
that seven storey pagoda
where the Mandarins of classical
verse reside, sipping tea
and blowing hookah smoke ...

Follies and pitfalls
lie ahead for the aspiring poet
- peat bogs and deserts -
see the bones of those who never made it:
not enough water or whisky
or chutzpah.


Making the move from your hometown
to that American college in the sun
or your Oxford hobbit hole
can you speak Elvish?

Are you Rumi or Tagore
can you take the floor
in this post-colonial world - performance poet!
Maybe they don't want you in there
just to embarrass yourself.

Do you have to join a cabal?
That’s up to you, pal!