Poetry is a fine art
A way of putting down
Words and heart feelings
And even history
Personal and beyond
Exploring dimensions
Not ordinary every day

Shakespeare I'm sure
Spent much time
Refining the meaning
Managing the rhyming
Considering the essence
Of the big issues
In his tumultuous
Elizabethan times

His poetry was sublime
Of course
Sonnets touching hearts
Plays celebrated
For ever more
On stage and screen

Poetry today for us
May have a different purpose
More immediate communication
Right now in the hour of distress
We don't need to perform
Or publish apart from online

We just need
To share our thoughts
Reactions reflections
Late at night i suspect
When our barriers are down
Sharing what's happened
To our lives
Turned around
And turned again

Shakespeare had his day
Left a legacy
Beyond belief
We continue to be amazed
At his sharp and penetrating
Intellect and skill
With the pen

Now we have something to say
Just like him
About the world
We are living in
Just as tumultuous
Or even more
As our world spins

Our daily lives
Are not any more
What they were
More drama than that
Is hard to imagine
A massive reimagining
Of how life goes forward

Shakespeare would love
The opportunity to distill
The essence of the time
With rhymes resonating
Telling us the meaning
Of hard times historically

So how will we tell the story
Today and tomorrow
Of where we've been
And where we'll go
What legacy
Will we leave
For the next generation ?