cbaird14

Drawing is for artists
and cowboy heroes.

I write and so does he.

We stare each other
down, the eyes inside our eyes
open, pens holstered.

How does one show a mirror
to a mirror and hope to see
anything at all.

So I write about
how he must be writing
about me writing
about him.

Artists, unlike cowboys, know
that it isn't about who draws first
but about what it means
to hold a weapon.

MariusBonaparte

I really like this. Truly, poetry is a weapon at times. It matters not if someone may have tread that path before, but if they know what it means to have their "weapon" .

Reading through this out loud, I encountered no glaring rhythmical problems. In fact, it read smoothly. Maybe that's just my inner actor at work, making a script mine and all

Nice submission.

Pawn

Final stanza is excellent and saves the poem. Mirror to mirror metaphor is another high point. Don't like the first line: is poetry not art?

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Carpe Noctem
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Achilles

Baird, this is a great piece here, and I'm honored to be cited in the title.

I did look up Wilbur, and that poem fascinates me. Thanks for the suggestion.

That's a great stanza, as is the last. I wasn't caught competely in the first stanza, but I think the quality rose dramatically from there. You pulled out quite a few nuances that made me to think. Thanks for sharing.

Achilles

__________________
The Palace Flophouse

When Newton closed his eyes beneath a tree
and took the apple from the serpent, he
conceived the urge of humanity, plea, plea,
procreant desire and tendency.

Mackb

An excellent poem from beginning to end. I am impressed with the mirror thing. I write about... is brilliant and original. and your last stanza holds lots of potential and an apt reminder to all of us who dare to write.

ok, one nit pick. I wouldhave liked a better transition from heroes to say who you're witing about, you I know, but it oculd be better said.

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When we're young, every day is cheap but the older we get, the more we esteem our time. However if you've faced death and lived, every day becomes precious.

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cbaird14

Thanks for the replies everyone,

Marius: I'm glad you were able to make the poem yours, that's the way it should be, I think.

Pawn: Thanks for the comment, the final stanza is the thrust of the poem for sure, sounds like I need to take a look at the beginning. You're obviously right to say that poets are artists, I intended for it to read as a pun on both artists and cowboys "drawing." Then to move on after the period to describe a scene were one poet writes about another, "I write and so does he." Perhaps a bit ambiguous, thanks for the comment.
Achilles: I'm overjoyed that you checked out Wilbur, I think that's what it's all about in terms of writing, "life and death." It was my thought over your poem that inspired this. Thanks
Mack: Write on Mack!! You've got it, "an apt reminder to those of us who dare to write." Writing is a very dangerous thing and it is exactly that danger, that responsibility on the part of the writer, that makes what we do so important. Thanks for the nit pick, I am going to edit that right now. Thanks

Chris

slayerofangels

The last verse is one of the most striking pieces of philosophy I've read so far, great work!

Slayer

__________________

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Battle not with monsters lest ye become a monster. And if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you. - Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

cbaird14

Thanks Slayer,

I don't know if I would go that far, but I appreciate it nonetheless. I hope that unlike much philosophy it effected you rather than merely affecting you.

Chris

cbaird14

Revised version. Hoping it has improved.