"The poetry I write is what I read"
Wrote Robert Service, and I go with him,
In our technique and aims we are agreed,
Though scholars scowl his poetry to skim;
The cackle of the geese and barnyard fowl
Preferred to eagles soaring overhead,
The lesser poets, this was his avowal,
Instead of those Great Mighty Masters dead.
Longfellow too, and many more besides--
You have to trust your heart, the reputation
Bestowed by scholars bald are but asides,
Tools to secure their own self-preservation.
Cummings or Service, honest craftsmen all,
With ye my brethren, do I stand or fall.