2 Poems by Sam Smith

Not Artists, Notarists


Filled with uncertainty


            for what he’s doing

                        for what he’s done

            sees only futures

                        that will elude him


Yet still he owns the aspiration

            to be a writer

            rather than to write


Being to him more important

                        than doing

for his ‘linguistic community’

                        writers group

exporting his lack of resolve

            he puts together

a guide to guides about guide books



Absent Negatives


“Nothing,” said.


Empty as an abstract notion,

of relevance only as a negative.


Nothing

a construct

a useful notational abstract


that said


no container can be truly empty

must contain something

if only a vacuum


“Something,” said.


Within life’s journey

from zero to zero

egos but mutts

           kick-scratching verges


Bionote

Sam Smith is editor of The Journal (once 'of Contemporary Anglo-Scandinavian Poetry'), and publisher of Original Plus books. He has been a psychiatric nurse, residential social worker, milkman, plumber, laboratory analyst, groundsman, sailor, computer operator, scaffolder, gardener, painter & decorator........ working at anything, in fact, which paid the rent, enabled him to raise his three daughters and which hasn’t got too much in the way of his writing. Now in his 70s he has ended up living in South Wales. For the last couple of years he has been blogging http://www.thesamsmith.simplesite.com.  And he has signed with a new publisher, Wordcatcher for both his novels and poetry collections. https://sites.google.com/site/samsmiththejournal/