‘Poems of Universal Wisdom & Beauty’
I forgive everyone. I’m like
that. I don’t gossip too much.
I’m a kind of hero. The moon
is like a big empty plate up there,
don’t you think? No? Okay.
I’m a very democratic writer.
Most days I’m at work on my magnum opus:
‘Poems of Universal Wisdom & Beauty’.
I’m understandably excited. Music drifts
through from the other room
like smoke while I type away
merrily. When lunch arrives I eat it.
I’m trying to free myself
from the idea that intelligence can only be
conveyed by thought, especially
the complex, allusive sort. Readability
is my new thing. Readability
equals intelligence.
—C. J. Allen
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from A Strange Arrangement: New and Selected Poems (Leafe Press, 2007)