A Poem Revisited

If You Can’t Stand the Heat


You ghost of poets
Who put your heads into ovens
Sat in closed cars and garages
Or jumped off ledges into hard edges
I understand
I have had hell
Compressed inside my cranium
As tightly as cotton stoppered aspirin.
Yes I understand; but I do empathize
With a Robert Frost or Marianne Moore
Of the staying souls
And take people away from them-
Not that they were saints-only stayers
When you ride a tiger
It’s death to tire of the ride.
- Margaret Flanagan

This poem which is from The Writer is a favorite of mine. I have been looking for other poems by Margaret Flanagan.If you know any, please, tell me.