Poems don't make friends

If they seem to, pull back fast!

Poems serve as absolute logic,

no exceptions

If they seem not to, be suspicious

Groups of poems

never form social clubs

If they appear to, bid fare-thee-well

Poems show no consideration

Should they seem to,

hit yourself over the head, go to the mountains

Poems either show a clarity that hurts,

or a vagueness that soothes,

but always stay clear of nostalgia,

far away from sentimentality and self-pity

Some poems play with anything; hail those!

Poets serve a calling,

abstain from relationships that muddle,

that cannot take cruel honesty and dangerous beauty;

- clear the table!

A poet of stature

will not need ”club” members in need

Look the other way!

Poets harbouring such needs

are referred to welfare organizations,

and therapists

like Gert Jan Kloens & Grethe van Duijn

Sentimental writers are referred

to little girls' pony booklets

or the classic stories of Cinderella

& Snow White

A hard situation should be told

poetically & mathematically exact

Any sad sentiments or sense of suffering

must be left in that silence

that'll munch us all

Any social consideration

will compromise any honest poetry

and have it disintegrate

like an old wasp's nest out in the barn

Age & ills constitute a perfect environment

for hard poetics

Sentimentally dirtied grounds

should be cleaned out

with the soap of relentlessness

and the detergent of clear thinking;

muddy words

put through the sewage treatment works

of style & grace,

and poets be held back at the gates

until they can produce valid value visas