The Modern PoetFor your words and others.
Release 15
Always tinkering.

I use this place too. I keep finding things to add, change, or make a little better.

Latest check: 1,242 passed. Regular checks, ongoing improvements.

This round: quieter reading, book-style chapters, and one HH throughout.

THE MODERN POET

Nothing for Sale

By HH

A gentleman knocked with a mouth full of gold, And offered me freedom, attractively sold. “It costs you no money. It costs you no fee. Just tell us precisely who you like to be.” A second came knocking: “I’m simply sincere. Your thoughts are your own. Let me put them in here. Just borrow my outrage. Just swallow my view. I’ve thought all the thoughts you should think about you.” By noon there were merchants asleep in my sink, All charging admission to watch myself think. One sold me my silence. One rented my name. One sponsored the fire. One invoiced the flame. A scholar confiscated the beat and the chime, Then charged by the hour to abolish the rhyme. I gave him a song. He declared it a crime. The clock on his invoice kept excellent time. Read it or leave it. There’s nothing to pay. You needn’t surrender yourself on the way. I wanted to make something ring when it sings. Now please, for fuck’s sake, stop selling me things.

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POETRY. PHILOSOPHY. THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE.

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Your work, and voices from around the world.
Poetry, poetic philosophy, and the people behind it.

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A little rhyme. Something to turn over. Tomorrow, a possible answer.

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A note on the rotation

Box one belongs to works shared here—pictures, poems, or both—with a new selection each hour. The other three change one at a time every fifteen minutes. One is a Halloween poem through October. Skip any card, or pause while you read.

THERE’S ROOM FOR YOUR VOICE.

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