William Carlos Williams was a doctor who was also a great poet.
Bob Dylan was a singer who was also a fine poet.
Muhammed Ali was a great boxer who was also a notable poet.
Before his historic matches Ali would intone, "If you want to lose your money/Then place your bets on Sonny." Or "Richard Nixon has resigned/And I'll whip Foreman's behind." He won both those matches against Sonny Liston and George Foreman.
The rhyming of "money" and "Sonny" is an accident, and so is that between "resigned" and "behind." But poets take accidental linguistic coincidences and turn them into a powerful destiny.
Ali in his verse made it seem as though Fate had mandated he would win his matches. He usually did. Bob Dylan got the Nobel Prize for his poetry. I'll give Muhammed Ali a belated McBride Prize for his.
I'm Tom McBride; that's my Perspective on the side.
