'Plato would Banish Me at Birth'

In Plato's Republic, 

poets are banned 

and banished 

'Homer' the first official unsung hero

of western literature.

Yes, in Plato's Republic,

he is left out of all literary rows, 

Plato says, 

Iliad and Odyssey

are not for good men.

Who are those good men, I wonder. 

Poetry, He says, 

is the empty 'eloquence of fools'

and Poets are those, 

who can corrupt the best soul. 

Poetry in Greek 

means 'to make' (poiein)

Plato says,

truth is the act of becoming, 

not making, 

So poets are deceivers, 

liars, 

Trompe-l'œil,

meaning, 

making an imagery

look real in all three dimensions, 

but are just mere illusion. 

Trompe-l'œil of forced perspectives. 

Poets he says, 

are no philosophers but 

just imitators. 

But what is philosophy, 

if not subtle universal poetry.

Philo meaning Lovers

Sophia meaning Wisdom. 

And 'Poets' in ways are lovers, 

sad lovers, 

angry lovers, 

happy lovers, 

mad lovers, 

inspirational lovers, 

but whatever it is Poets are Lovers, 

of imagination, 

of emotions, 

of beings, 

of forms

of divinity

of WISDOM

so aren't poet Philosophers. 

Poets, is a 'mimesis'

the act of resembling,

Poetry is madness, 

not the normal one, 

but divine madness, 

Like Timothy Leary used to say, 

'TURN ON'

'TUNE IN'

'DROP OUT'

Poets are always dropped out. 

May be that's why, 

Poets for Plato 

are ought to be banished. 

Perhaps, 

in Plato's Republic, 

I would be banished at birth, 

I being the Poetry, 

My parents being the Poets, 

and Life being an eternal Poem !

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