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      May 19, 2025Matt MasonI Owe You a Poem

      after “Elegy Owed” by Bob Hicok
       
      I’m not a carpenter, Mom, can’t
      make you a cupboard, can’t
      sew up the rip in your sofa’s arm, can’t
      fix your sink. I don’t
      own a saw or the right pliers or a wrench big enough.
      I went to college.
      I know a lot about the English Romantics
      and poets
      so recent they release videos
      instead of books.
      I would like to build you a poem
      with a table saw and drill,
      pneumatic staple gun and box knife
      and frame it
      like a recessed refrigerator,
      like an electronic heated toilet seat,
      like a thing you will use
      every day.
       

      from #87 – Spring 2025

      Matt Mason

      “‘I Owe You a Poem’ pretty much outlines what I feel about poetry: that I’d love it to be something we use on a daily basis. We’ve spent the past century mainly asking poems to be smarter than us, that if they don’t need to be explained down to us by someone with a PhD then what good are they? I do like a good, difficult poem, but I also love a poem that’s clear; and I’ve seen how writing down a feeling in a way that makes others feel that precise shade of it takes a mountain of effort which isn’t recognized enough in much of our writing culture. In any case, look me up.”

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