Poets are Like Vampires (by Thom the World Poet)

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This poem is copyright

They only come out at night, their faces opaque
Moon white from computer cocoons
They spin webs of Internets
  between the worlds of night
And solar powered diary days

Coffee is their blood
They hang in packs in coffee shops
Listening to the beat of each other's wings
Steady as the clap of bats
  within their spiderwebs
(Once you are bitten,
  you can NEVER be the same again)

There is a certain wildness in their eyes
Privy to a joke that only poets know
The chase of a butterfly image
Within a cabbage patch poem.

The hunt at midnight for FRESH BLOOD
The bleeding of novices
  sacrificial victims for stern editors
And the endless QUEST for that PERFECT POEM
Which will unlock Aladdin's Cave, Plato's Cave
  and Nick's Cave.
Their eyes caving in with ENDLESS SIGNIFICANCES
Poured into poems endless as black coffee nights

They are both Blessed and Cursed
No Church will admit them to Her Liturgy
Unless they profess belief in Dogma
  no True Poet could ever believe in

Poets are a Paradox
They believe in Everything and Nothing
They are Everywhere  and Nowhere to be seen
They inhabit visible spectra
  only for the Initiated
And they WILL drink your blood
  (my mother told me!)

In fact, if you ever SEE a poet
It is best to RUN as far away from that library
  as you can
Cos poets make you THINK and FEEL strange things
You start to SWEAT with POSSIBILITIES
You get a FEVER for DRAMATIC CHANGES

And it will NOT stop there
You see, POETS ARE EVERYWHERE
They can do ANYTHING
They have POWERS FAR BEYOND THE REALM
  OF ORDINARY HUMANS
And they want YOU to be POETS, too!
That's like a DISEASE! - FREE SPEECH!

LISTEN to a poet, you start to feel STRANGE
Like EVERYTHING is suddenly possible
And NOTHING is IMPOSSIBLE

And even if the spell does not last long
Poetry always remains in your dreams and memories

When you wake up SUDDENLY,
  with a BRILLIANT IDEA at 3am
THAT'S WHEN THE POETS ARE LISTENING!
That's when they enter YOUR dreams,
  and give YOU ideas
You may never have considered before

That's why poets are like vampires
Ideas can never die, and some poetry is immortal
Or was that IMMORAL?

Never mind,
Fangs for listening....

   ---(Thom the World Poet)---