Pens on paper
thoughts, focus and emotion
someone’s hand shakes
tasked with self furtherance.
Poets in the evening dusk.
Pens on paper
“Cogito ergo sum”, Descartes said
and they made eighteen-year-olds
write essays on it today.
Students in the morning sun.
And in between (both writing)
trams traverse the streets
tourists throng cafes
old ladies sell their garden flowers
hunched under the scorching flare.
I saw the students scribbling,
I rode the tram through the city
I passed the tourists, fast
and the old ladies, slower
but no flowers for me.
I listen to the quiet of raging ideas
and I am
a little bit
like the boy
who handed
his paper
empty.
LOVE IT! Strong ending that envelopes the whole piece :)
There’s lots of great imagery in this – ‘Poets in the evening dusk’ is particularly … well, poetic. And also lots of good detail – especially in the third verse – which give a brief, but clear picture of the city – and also has that really nice line ‘hunched under the scorching flare.’ My only suggestion would be to perhaps end it with ‘I listen to the quiet of raging ideas’ without the final part about the boy and the empty paper, which, although it's a good image, is a bit ‘explanatory’ and ‘the quiet of raging ideas’ would make for a strong finish that keeps readers thinking.