New Poet for Me: Jeff Hardin

I found this poem on Verse Daily after seeing Jeff Hardin's name on the upcoming list of poets for the new online journal, The Heron Tree. The poem does an excellent job of matching form with content. As the content wanders from a mouse to a fatwa, to a grass blade; the form meanders along with short lines that move the reader down the page in a leisurely fashion. The poem moves the way a relaxed mind moves ---- from image to image, with no fanfare, no drama. But what I love most about this poem happens in the third to last line. A line I might very well have to po-jack.






Lightweights


Even in these hostile times,
I sort of prefer those people
others consider
lightweights.
Those who,
during the meeting,
doodle in the margins,
inking out long-stemmed daisies
with words rising up
out of the stamens.
Watch how they're
not really ruffled
when referred to
as loafing.
Their tenacity
at not being
too insistent—
now that's a feat.
A mouse could run off
with their crumbs
and they wouldn't flip out,
call in a search party,
order a fatwa.
I imagine they know already
that plot is simply
what it is
—mostly a distraction—
that what matters
hasn't happened yet,
the realm of the possible,
which sometimes
doesn't occur.
While others strategize,
organize coalitions,
they fiddle with a grass blade,
inspecting its shape.
When they speak up,
it's to ask
some loll-about question
already drifting
right out of the room.

---- by Jeff Hardin