Too Many Secrets

Posted on 2018-04-01 by Bartholomew Barker

Happy National Poetry Month!

I’ve accepted Robert Lee Brewer’s Poem-A-Day Challenge this year so expect a lot of late night posts and bottles in the recycling bin over the next 30 days.

For today’s prompt, write a secret poem. This poem can reveal a secret, incorporate a secret activity, or involve any other secret interpretation. Poem written in code (acrostic, anyone?) or with double meanings.

the-secret-bench-of-knowledge-4-1225199-640x480.jpg

Too Many Secrets

People share too many secrets
with me. I must have a face
like a bartender or priest,
sympathetic and trustworthy.

I’m not eager for these burdens,
my memory like a honeycomb,
every conversation calibrated
to remember what I’m not supposed to know.

When I chose to become a poet
I decided not to have any secrets,
my life revealed in verse,
naked for your entertainment.

So I’m not lying when I feign ignorance
I’m just using a little poetic license.

 

Unknown's avatar

About Bartholomew Barker

Bartholomew Barker is an organizer of Living Poetry, a collection of poets in the Triangle region of North Carolina where he has hosted a monthly feedback workshop for more than decade. His first poetry collection, Wednesday Night Regular, written in and about strip clubs, was published in 2013. His second, Milkshakes and Chilidogs, a chapbook of food inspired poetry was served in 2017. He was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2021. Born and raised in Ohio, studied in Chicago, he worked in Connecticut for nearly twenty years before moving to Hillsborough where he lives and writes poetry.
This entry was posted in Poetry and tagged , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a comment