“Poetry is a pipe.” -- Paul Éluard and André Breton
“Ceci n’est pas une pipe.” -- René Magritte
Poetry is a pipe and not a pipe Poetry is music or perhaps a polar bear
This is not a poem about a polar bear It is a poem about a poem and the bear too is a poem a poem written by a bear about a bear a bear by and about a bear
the bear, a god, self-fertilizing the bear, a bear, self-poetizing
Poetry is not a pipe until it becomes a pipe filled with stilted words filled with lilting music filled with walrus-tusk tobacco
the bear, a poem, self-ursinizing the bear, Narcissus, self-mesmerizing the bear, a pipe, self-smoking
The bear is a pipe and not a pipe The bear is opium The bear is music
the bear, a rhyme, self-aestheticizing the bear, a drug, self-anesthetizing
The poem is a bear and not a bear
The poem is a pipe and the smoke, a forest fire a poem to burn down the world The poem is a bear wearing a ranger hat who threatens to let you do it
the world, a pipe, self-playing the world, a fire, self-immolating the bear, a poem, self-saying the bear, music, self-syncopating the bear self-conscious self-prophesying self-engendered self-contained self-referential the bear rhymes itself with perfect rhythm the bear rhymes itself with bear
Jennifer Handy is the recipient of aPearl Hogrefe Fellowship in Creative Writing at Iowa State University, and theauthor of the poetry chapbooks California Burning (Bottlecap Press2024), Dirt (Finishing Line Press 2025), and Huswifery and HigherMath (Dancing Girl Press 2026.) “The Treachery of Rhyme” is from herunpublished book of poetry This Is Not a Polar Bear: A Study in PostmodernExtinction. To receive notifications when poems from the book are publishedand the book’s release date, sign up at This Is Not a Polar Bear http://thisisnotapolarbear.com/.