Saturday, 22 June 2024

Jim Murdoch: Not Everything Equals

Sometimes the questions are complicated
and the answers are simple ―Dr. Seuss
 
At the most basic level
a poem can be expressed as
a + b = 4
 
where the 4 is the poem
and all you have to do
is assign the variables.
 
Sadly, in reality
(bad choice of word),
the answer is usually √-1—
 
     since a poem is a
     product of the imagination—
and the sum ends up looking
 
more like alphabetti spaghetti
than Blackpool rock.


Jim Murdoch is a Scottish writer. As he's been writing for over fifty years his list of rejections is voluminous but he keeps at it. He's written most things over the years but he thinks of himself primarily as a poet and is currently producing poems at an unpresented pace.