Tinker’s Damn

“Tinkers Gathering Firewood”
Painting by Nano Reid
From discovery.dho.ie

philosopher poets
dull solitaires stranded
on islands of intellect
languish ignored and
unpolished by patronage
snubbed by academy
dons homely lonely
extravagant thoughts
raised in rhetoric
mortgaged by metaphor
bold interrogatives
verbalize verses acute
with glib secular prayers
for those insights those
clues to the keys to the
locks of creation those
cues to the questions
that even unanswered
ennoble the practice of
living a praiseworthy life
but a one handed sole
minded search for some
soothing amalgam of
penned entertaining
enlightening wisdom
wears hard on the psyche
a smart thinker author
wants partners not rivals
needs readers not muses
if ever his words are
to matter in least as
a good tinker’s damn