Poetry: A Million Voices By R.M. Engelhardt

A Million Voices

 

The writers

All come & go 

 

All trying to be

The eternal voice

The next dark saint of 

Their age

 

In every era

In every century 

 

The Words

 

Crashing through 

Every window 

Every door

 

Waiting to be

The next Shakespeare or

The next revelation 

 

To become something 

More than merely human

 

Touching human souls

With human words

 

Timeless 

 

But forgotten 

 

Amid the drama

Of all civilization 

 

To be the scholar 

The oracle

 

Instead

Soon to become 

 

The lost voice of humanity 

The voice of desperation 

 

The voice of what

All of us eventually become 

 

Mere souls

Without mortal

Coils 

 

Buried

 

Like a book

In the library 

 

Never touched

Never read

 

Never seen

 

And then?

 

They have the nerve

To call us 

 

“Poets”

 

 

 

 

 

R.M. Engelhardt is an American poet, writer & author whose work over the last 30 years has been published in a wide number of journals and zines. He currently lives & writes in Upstate NY and is the Editor of the Small Indie Poetry Press Dead Man's Press Ink. His new book of poetry is entitled “The Dying Time”, Published by Valhalla Shelter Press  2026 and is available now.