Terry Jude Miller
What I know of knowing
is that there is no end to it.
Hoe a learned row, and tomorrow
grass pops up between seedlings.
Which is why failure is so important,
that inexhaustible lesson of our fallibility.
The farmer of the brain grows
gray matter from misfortune. Plants
ideation in hopes it will sprout innovation.
Which is why ego is a boon and an agent
of doom, you must tether its cerberusian
tendencies enough to be deemed humble,
but must unleash it to run rampant
when catastrophe flares
its soul-consuming head.
Which brings us to faith, the engine
of belief hurling and whirling
within every velveteen rabbit. Its gift
is love. It not only makes us human,
it makes us real. Which is the only thing
really worth knowing.
Terry Jude Miller is a twice Pushcart Prize-nominated poet from Houston. He received the
2018 Catherine Case Lubbe Manuscript Prize for his book, The Drawn Cat’s Dream. His work
has been published in the Southern Poetry Anthology, The Lily Poetry Review, The Comstock
Review, and The Oakland Review and in scores of other publications. He formerly served as 1st
Vice Chancellor of the National Federation of State Poetry Societies.