The Anti-Poet

I am a poet

Sometimes I rhyme,
sauntering like a picnic ant,
not wishing to surprise
Other times I am a topsy-turvy wordsmith 
who doesn't make the...

Should I claim a blue-collar work ethic,
saying I produce poems like a printing press,
or should I upcharge the simile
and call myself a mystical artist instead?

(Can I be mystical and verbose?
Wittgenstein, John of the Cross,
those observers of apophatic silence,
would they not be provoked?)

The literal is not that far from the mystical,
for both methods are direct

So lead me to the gallows
for creative philistines and liberals
who worry about consonants and vowels 
and question why figurative words
are more valuable than literal

Besides, Peter van Inwagen's
metaphysics would have me say
that this poem does not exist anyway

"The Anti-Poet" is a composite
of elementary particles arranged word-wise,
so its poemness is merely a product of mind

Therefore, I am not a poet,
though I did initially try
my hand at some verse
And here I must admit,
that first line was a lie!