Cheat Blog

Some poems come to me in an instant, I like them a lot because I subscribe to the response of Gertrude Stein when somebody asked her why she like to write. “I don’t like to write,” she said. “I like having written.” Some poems take weeks, or even months, and while I like them, because I like all my poems, they don’t tend to be my most popular work. Some of my poems, maybe even most, start with the two lines that were the original inspiration, and then I have to cobble together an ending, which is hard. I’m not as good at endings as I am at beginnings. In this poem, however, the 4 line inspiration is at the end and it wasn’t too hard to construct the rest of it.
It got more reaction than usual at the poetry site I go to, so I’m posting it here in my blog, largely because there is so little worth writing about any more and I didn’t even do a blog last night and still don’t have a good idea for one. I consider it sort of cheating to post one of my poems and call it a blog, but what the hell….

I love ice cream and apple pie

a burger or a steak

soft white clouds, a clear blue sky

a summer by the lake

I love the look of wonder

on a little child’s face

but do I love my country?

a country’s just a place

I love majestic mountains

and rivers flowing free

that go on and on forever

and I love the deep blue sea

I love the flowers and the trees

I love all things that grow

I love the stars up in the sky

but countries come and go

I love to hear great music

I love to sing and dance

I love the sound of laughter

and the feeling of romance

I love my friends and family

the way they make me feel

but do I love my country?

countries are not real

There would be no need for conflict

for armies and for war

If people loved their countries less

and other people more