It has been said you can’t write a
poem if you are in a bad mood.
I don’t think Sylvia Plath would have understood.
I suppose the same could be said
for Ann Sexton, another poet dead;
John Berryman, dead, too, as was his plan.
So what’s not to understand?
Great poetry has been written
by many who died by their own hand
and who with a death wish were much smitten.
And so, poetry can be written
when one is in a bad mood.
That is just something the muses
have understood.
However, to write a limerick
or a funny little jingle,
I imagine one must be
in a pretty good mood.
I’ve never heard of a dark limerick
or a little, black jingle,
or, for that matter, a depressing poem
about Kris Kringle.
I’m always depressed during the holidays,
but would never think to take pen in hand
and write something depressing about
the Christmas man.
That — neither the muses nor little kids
would understand.
They just would never understand.