The Mad Poet of the Year blog posts share the poetry of a long-time Mad Poet. This year-long appointment provides readers with a deep dive of the writer’s work and thoughts on poetry. We are thrilled to have R. G. Evans serve as the Mad Poet of the Year for 2022.
MORE LIFE
by R.G. Evans
Whatever fire burns us first, they teach us the word No,
but on our own we learn the sweeter word More.
We cuddle with excess, shun moderation
(its skeletal cousin the scold).
Food comes first and lasts the longest,
even when lust crashes through like a lineman.
More cake, more kisses, more chocolate, more you.
In my time, I have wanted more days
to lie in the sand beside the warm Carolina sea.
I’ve ordered one more drink
when more was the last thing I should have.
Some years I have wanted more women
than any sane man’s life could hold.
And often when a sun like this one
slips down russet under a dark horizon,
I pray More time, the biggest no of all.
More. Say the word. A kiss into the air.
A gesture of farewell. O life. O now.
O every mortal gift. More, we say. O More.
It’s been an honor serving as the Mad Poet of the Year. Many thanks to the Mad Poets Society for the invitation and for featuring my poems each month. I end my tenure here with a poem from my first book, Overtipping the Ferryman, a poem that is a remembrance, a wish, an impossible dream—everything that makes poetry worth writing and reading.
R.G. Evans’s books include Overtipping the Ferryman (Aldrich Poetry Press Prize), The Holy Both, and Imagine Sisyphus Happy. His original songs were featured in the poetry documentaries All That Lies Between Us and Unburying Malcolm Miller, and his collection of original songs, Sweet Old Life, is available on most streaming platforms. Evans teaches creative writing at Rowan University. Website: www.rgevanswriter.com