Susan Hawthorne #174 why write poetry

before writing poets were
important not just for their words
but for metre and song
and stories told in poems

poems were like way stations
on a journey through country
the stations of the cross
might be ancient tracks

poems with memorable tales
of histories made by ancestors
were living singing dancing
ways of remembering all

that was necessary to survive
insects and birds their habits
and habitats the season of frogs
and movements of the moon

writing meant that no one took
the task of remembering and
passing down those way stations
and the code of knowledge