National Poetry Month, v. 7.0, Day 11

I don't know why I thought of this today, but I am drawn for some reason to one of my favorite quotes in all of literature: from Shakespeare's "Midsummer Night's Dream" Act 5, scene 1, as Hippolyta and Theseus are discussing the strange events that have occurred beforehand.  Perhaps it's my favorite because many years ago, I got to say those lines on stage.  I don't know, truthfully.  But for some reason, I have never forgotten them.

The lunatic, the lover, and the poet

Are of imagination all compact.

One sees more devils than vast hell can hold—

That is the madman. The lover, all as frantic,

Sees Helen’s beauty in a brow of Egypt.

The poet’s eye, in fine frenzy rolling,

Doth glance from heaven to Earth, from Earth to heaven.

And as imagination bodies forth

The forms of things unknown, the poet’s pen

Turns them to shapes and gives to airy nothing

A local habitation and a name.

Such tricks hath strong imagination,

That if it would but apprehend some joy,

It comprehends some bringer of that joy.

Or in the night, imagining some fear,

How easy is a bush supposed a bear!

Today's poem isn't about these words, specifically, but more about the wish that I have today: that I could have understood better what I was saying so many years ago, and truly "gotten" the idea.  As always,

Thanks for reading.

Me

lunatics, lovers, and poets

my young mind knew not what i was saying,
so many years ago on a stage i used to own,
where my heart and soul were put forth 
so many times.
would that i could return to then,
oh, the performance i might give,
with the understanding of years,
what "compact imagination" means.
but, would the audience know it -
would they feel what i do now,
would it make sense to them?
would they see the devils, or Helen, or heaven,
or all?
which title would i have?
i have been all three.
perhaps that's why the words stick with me today -
i have been living them all along.