the way to hump a cow

No one likes everything. For example, none of us have the time to develop the knowledge and the sophisticated ear needed to appreciate all music. We listen; we discover. We winnow.

When young we are silly in our devotion to and imitation of certain songs and artists. When Midnight Train to Georgia comes on the radio, I still turn into a Pip. Jimmy Buffet’s A Pirate Looks at Forty still touches me.

I am similarly affected when I read poetry by e e cummings or Stanley Kunitz or Charles Simic or Dylan Thomas or Tony Hoagland or Jeff McDaniel or William Carpenter. When I hear Desmond Egan’s Northern Ireland Question, I have the urge to windmill my arm like Pete Townshend.

Every now and then at a poetry reading, someone will tell me that they don’t like poetry. What if someone told you, "I don’t like music?" You’d think, How sad.

What if we let poetry sneak up on us when we're young - like music - and act just as silly while learning to ...bellow like a bool?

What if?