Is Poetry Dead?

I think not!  What about you?

Here is the title poem from my poetry collection, "The Nightshade Lexicon" in honor of #WorldPoetryDay

Or Listen in to the technopoetry version if you prefer at: https://soundcloud.com/lacey-schmidt/nightshadelexicon-poetry-is-deadmp3 

"Poetry is dead,"

He said,

"And you scribblers of rhymes

Are the modern day equivalents of Dr. Frankenstein,

Cobbling together hackneyed parts of palsied phrases

Hoping to electrify some heart."

How could this be?

I thought.

Everyone knows GOD is dead,

Nietzsche told us so,

But poetry?

A listing land of zombie corpses?

Poetry has whispered mixers and elixers

To necromancers and angels alike for millennium…

Dressed ancient Ute chants to the nines

And peeled naked Tupac Shakur and Beastie Boy dimes.

"Poetry is dead and you’re wasting time with ghosts on-line,"

He insisted,

As I shaped more sharpie ghouls on a napkin

And the back of some grocery store receipt.

Maybe poetry chirps via smart-phone at 180 characters per minute

Like Herman Munster’s heartbeat,

“IT LIVES!”

I quipped.

And I’ll continue to deal in my dead lexicon,

A dark addicted wordslinger,

Happy towering with the nightshades.

Some poetic nightshades in a dead lexicon...