Max Reif’s most recent poem to appear here was “To My Breakfast: An Ode to the Sense of Taste” (March 2017)

A Poet’s Apology to Words
By Max Reif

Words,
you were empty vessels
grazing on hillsides,
transparent to the sun.

I conscripted you
and sentenced you
to forced marches
into no-man’s lands
that I called poems.

It was an effort
I believed justified
to harness you to
a higher purpose.

I am sorry, words.
I give you back
your freedom.

Forget about
all of us here.
I, for one,
am not ripe yet
to be your priest.

Return to your hillsides.
Graze in peace.
Some day,
I will be ready.