Poetry to a Poet

To A Frus­trat­ed Poet
by R.J. Ellmann

This is to say
I know
You wish you were in the woods,
Liv­ing the poet life,
Not here at a formi­ca topped table
In a meet­ing about per­ceived inequal­i­ties in the ben­e­fits and
allowances offered to
employ­ees of this college,
And I too wish you were in the woods,
Because it’s no fun hav­ing a frus­trat­ed poet
In the Dept. of Human Resources, believe me.
In the poems of yours that I’ve read, you seem ever intel­li­gent and
decent and patient in a way
Not evi­dent to us in this office,
And so, know­ing how poets can make a feast out of trouble,
Rais­ing flow­ers in a bed of drunk­en­ness, divorce, despair,
I give you this check rep­re­sent­ing two weeks’ wages
And ask you to clean out your desk today
And go home
And write a poem
With a real frog in it
And plums from the refrigerator,
So sweet and so cold.