What is poetry?

One of the more interesting aspects of this public submission format is picturing the poet in your mind. Who was it? What did they look like? What were they feeling and thinking while fiddling with your car? Although this is more a declaration than poetry, I picture a young woman who has just left her ultrasound. She is unable to make phone calls fast enough to give her friends and family the news. When you have a baby there are a couple times you want a bullhorn to scream out to the world what you are feeling. This is one of those times. I see her standing behind my jeep looking for the "!!!" magnet. If poetry is "communication in beauty or the evocation of feeling"-- this must surely be the latter.

Poetry From the Hospital

Friday, July 25th we welcomed our 3rd (Seth) into a sterile delivery room. Since we scheduled the induction for 7am, I was able to park our Cherokee in the first visible spot in the attached parking garage. In the past 3 days, it has been nearly impossible to visit the maternity ward or emergency room without passing my car. There has been so much response I have had to snap pics and rearrange magnets to make room for new works. Lots of cliche's and lots of non-poetry have been left out, but I'll include a couple to give you an idea of what to expect if you happen to park your magnet covered car in a building where people enter and leave existence on a regular basis.

This was the first. It's short, pretty, and has a serene quality to it. If any pharmaceutical reps passed by and make this the new tag line for Lunesta, I will demand royalties...or whatever the drug-ad equivalent is called.

Indianapolis weighs in

Although I had hoped my first automotive poem would be profound and revelatory, you have to post what you can get. This was made in the parking garage above my downtown store location right off Monument Circle in Indy. In fairness, the symphony and its patrons park in the same garage so I like to think of it as the abstract of an essay on generational differences in modern America and how the establishment perpetuates the divide. While Joe assures me it is kids making d*ck jokes, I believe he is crass and cynical. Like Ponyboy, I'll stay gold.

Also, I will start carrying a better camera for this project