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Welcome to the first offering of The Indy Showcase in which we are proud to bring you Author and Poet Alex Ness in a brand new column, A Poet's Mind. From the words of Mr. Ness himself!

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I write poems, and other things.  Some say that makes me a poet.   

 

But being a poet is less about the job as it is an outlook, and that outlook is less about what you do, as why you do it, and how you do it. A poet is born like anyone else, but through their experiences, and discoveries, and epiphanies, they learn how to express themselves in ways that reveal things that others might not see.   But they are also, usually, expressing something from their soul, their inner self if you prefer, that leaves them naked before the viewer/reader.    

 

So how do I know I am poet?  I don’t yet altogether know. I’ve had people tell me I am a good poet, and have written over 3000 poems, and have had 18 books published, either by others, or myself.

 

I was born in 1963 of a rape.  I was adopted by and then raised by ultra-perfectionists who were both very strict and demanding. I was given a world-view, and was told when to think, when to speak.   But I knew my adoptive parents loved me, despite the iron hand, and while I was always an outsider, having that solid foundation, but outsider view, allowed me to observe the world, in a kind of silence that fermented the poetry inside me.

 

I remember staring up at the clouds going overhead and realizing not how fluffy they were, but how lyrical and awesome it would be to hop from one to another. I remember never being alone, despite no humans being present, as I stared into space. I was quiet and shy, but I was always full of thoughts. I was never bored, ever.

 

A poet simmers, and poets may brew, but from what I’ve experienced and what I’ve observed in other poets, what a poet is, is something that can’t be manufactured, but happens spontaneously.  Many great poems in fact are written by masters of the word, who are writers, but probably not “poets”. I am not suggesting that their work isn’t as good as those who self declare themselves to be poets. A poet is simply a person who labels themselves to be an observer and recorder of events, moments and ideas, and many choose to do so in a form that is less detailed than prose, less rhyme devoted than music, and with the poet being less interested in popular approval.  (If society sanctions your art through financial support, that is the purchase, of your work, there are almost no self-supporting poets.) But throughout history the poet has remained the observer and the memory of the society. And therefore, however much we are forgotten, the poets never forget.

 

This is a recent poem found on my poetry blog. It might be about a dejected jester in a queen’s court, or else, it could be a different sort of jester, in a different sort of queen’s service.

 

Just a Jester in her Service

 

by Alex Ness

All rights reserved. 

Copyright 2013

 

Might I dance for you

Or juggle or sing a tune

I can tell a joke

Or make you laugh

Perhaps I might be of worth

Somehow

Someway

Or is it in opportune?

I am just a jester

And you are after all

A queen

I live to serve you

But somehow I feel

You don't see me 

I am invisible

I don't exist

But for my service

As a jester

To make you laugh

To make you smile

All day long

When things are hard

And life is wrong

I do something funny

But my Queen

We weren't meant to be

So

 

 

(For more of Alex Ness's poetry, other works and books written by Alex Ness check him out here.)

Written or Contributed by J.M. Hunter

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READ THIS ARTICLE ON THE FRONT PAGE, HUMANS!

[Kris Orluck]

Alex, always quiet, always thoughtful, I love your description of you... a poet!

[Richard Fay]

Yep. A poet isn't made, a poet is.

[Alex Ness]

thank you captain!

[Angie Lisle]

Lovely description of a poet.

Nice poem too - says a lot in so few words!