I have finally come to realize

the source of my poetic tension.

For me, poetry is lyric, not epic, not dramatic

or academic, but melodic emotion.

To me, a poem is shorthand to express

a feeling distinguished from all others.

In its purest form, a poem belongs

to a song, as a child unto a mother.

This does not negate another application,

it only clarifies my own inclination

to a melody, to the child, to the lyric,

to poetic epiphany in this lonely writer.