Poets Must Be

If it is poets you seek
Tarry not beside the well-kept literary graves
Of those whose time and place is past

Poets must be in that time
When change upsets the veneer of order
When confusion threatens to overwhelm
When the air is pregnant with revolution

Poets must be in that place
Where language of the heart is being purged
Where voices of dissent are being silenced
Where words of inspiration give life to dying souls

If it is poets you seek
Stray into the entangled expressive wilderness
Of those whose time and place is now