We labor at night when the moon sings or in the morning

while birds get their bearings, or in the afternoon when

the sun sears the hungry earth and clouds shroud hours.

Our poetic labor is our craft, or is it art?

Whether craft or art it includes everyone from

Shakespeare to Billy Collins, Wallace Stevens

to Ginsberg, Rilke to Bukowski and Mary Oliver.

Willie croons, “Fear no more the heat of the sun,”

while Billie writes, “I found myself in the L section of

the dictionary where my eyes fell upon the word lanyard.”

Wally builds a snowman and chants, “One must

have a mind of winter,” and Allen has “a vision of

ultimate cunt and come eluding the last gyzym

of consciousness.” Maria, sweet Maria, insists that

“every angel is terrible,” while Buck takes a pull

from a wine bottle and growls that, “The rotting

bodies of men and animals will stink in the dark

wind.” Mary chants, “Make of yourselves a light.”

How, I wondered on Facebook, could anyone claim

to know what makes a so-called “good” poem? How,

in a field this varied, could anyone declare an absolute standard?

Enter U. R. A. Barbaros who wrote, “If you don’t know

what makes a good poem, Hoss, call your college

and ask for your money back.” I stressed again the wild

array of poets and poems, different as a loaf of bread

from the pinwheel of a turbine. Whereupon the venerable

U. R. A. Barbaros wrote, “sue your college, Hoss, they

defrauded you.” To which I responded, “Wow, what

arrogance, and coming from someone I’ve never heard of.”

Undeterred, the esteemed U. R. A. Barbaros replied,

“Google the name.” Yes, he actually wrote, “The name!”

My retort was short, “Well Big Hoss, unfriending you

won’t be a loss. So long, U. R. A., it’s been a gloss.”

Charlie Brice won the 2020 Field Guide Poetry Magazine Poetry Contest and placed third in the 2021 Allen Ginsberg Poetry Prize. His sixth full-length poetry collection is Miracles That Keep Me Going (WordTech Editions, 2023). His poetry has been nominated three times for the Best of Net Anthology and the Pushcart Prize and has appeared in Atlanta Review, The Honest Ulsterman, Ibbetson Street, Chiron Review, The Paterson Literary Review, Impspired Magazine, and elsewhere.