Inkhorn

Illustration from the Ebbo Gospels

why chastise the poet
for being pedantic
in use of the inkhorn
who better to wax
academic upon the
redoubtable state
of the culture to
chronicle movement
of mores and norms
the social descriptive
injunctive behaviors
that undergo change
wrought by populist
spasm whom else but
the scholarly poet plays
best the iconoclast keys
making merciless fun of
conventional wisdom
the best acerb verse
lends an edged erudition
to clarify politics cutting
through bluster and bullshit
that dominate ersatz
debate of the thorniest
grave public policy issues
the reading of poetry
teaches much more than
the reading of history
doubling the pleasure
that well-chosen words
settle unto the heart