By Dennis Patton

Governor Asa Hutchinson proclaimed November 6 as Arkansas Celebration of National Poetry Day. Today’s column is in honor of our poets.

REQUIEM FOR A POET

A poet is dead and unsaid words hover restlessly like birds gathered on the edge of the nest feathered to fly.

Your wordssometimes they scowl

like midnight owls sometimes they chatter

like guinea hens sometimes they prowl

like hungry hounds

Today, your words

echo—re-echo— grinding a groove in my heart—i need more words. Humbly I plead: one more poem, dear poet, to muffle silence

— Verna Lee Hinegardner Former Poet Laureate

WHERE ART THOU, POETS?

I know there are hundreds and hundreds of thousands of poets in the good old USA.

I wonder where they are?

I try to find them.

I know my circle is small, my world cannot meet many, but when I ask,

“Are you a poet?”,

I get answers,

-Like-,

“When I was in school.”, “Sometimes.”,

“I used to be.”,

“I want to be.”.

What is that deep inborn strong desire, the God-given spark that calls?

What makes a poet?

What causes a poet to write a poem that stands out for all timeso much so, that when we read it or sing it or study it, hearts flutter?

—Cathy Parker Alexander

A TRIBUTE TO POETS

Poets paint leaves with words that rhyme; put love to music and love in real time.

And like artists, musicians, actors, and the like, poets tell their own stories between the lines.

But only for a while and then they move on from the poet's roundtable to heaven's theater-in-the-round!

Leaving behind a storied past— Previous moments in time Spent with family and friends, Making memories that rhyme.

— Mike Pafundi Deceased

WHAT POEMS DO

I'll paint you a picture of love from the heart just for you.

I'll speak of all the beauty of the flowers and the skies of blue.

I'll forever write the words of the beautiful trees and the beauty of God's creation.

That's just what poems do.

— Jeanette Heffington Benton, AR

To submit poems for publication, please send poems of 16 or fewer lines to Dennis Patton, 2512 Springhill Circle, Alexander, AR 72002, or patton_dr@ hotmail.com.