A Poetry Cube

      Gregory Coxson, professor and researcher in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the US Naval Academy, is a supporter of integration of the arts with the sciences and enjoys writing poems.  (Here is a link to his previous appearances in this blog.)   Recently Greg has sent me what he calls a CUBE poem (6 stanzas, 6 lines per stanza, 6 syllables per line).   It's FUN to read -- I offer it below:

If I Wrote Poetry     by Gregory Coxson

If I wrote poetry
  It would be efficient,
Stripped-down, like Chinese art,
  Only the sparest lines
Placed by easy habit
  Learned from ten thousand tries    

If I wrote poetry
  The humor would be wry
I'd find ways, as in life,
  To couch observations
In a smile and a wink,
  Exuberance in check

If I wrote poetry
  The forms and syllables
Would be appropriate
  A villanelle when right
Echoed sounds for binding
  Rhymes for fun or footwork

If I wrote poetry
  The product would age well
I would be inviting
  Readers to walk with me
Down lanes un-cheapened
  By time-stamped reference

If I wrote poetry
  It would be clear, honest
Words and phrases chosen
  For lean effectiveness
Like a log-splitter's strike,
  meant to hew with one blow.

If I wrote poetry
  I would be addicted
No emotion or feeling
  Would be real, or resolved
Until written in verse
  On always-handy bond

Thanks, Greg, for your support of mathy poetry!