For most people, the most difficult part of writing a poem is to allow it to just exist on its own, without succumbing to the compulsion to infuse it with every last possible ounce of personal ego. To my mind, poetry is above all the art of verbal depiction. To depict is to let the image describe itself, to let a scene show itself, to let an idea present itself—To let the subject of the poem make itself known without any intervention from the person writing the poem. As soon as “I feel”, “I think”, “I believe”, “I am”, I this, I that, I A-B-C and X-Y-Z come into the picture, the potential depictive poem becomes probable expository prose. So…
To Write a Poem
Remove your self
from the scene
Let the snowflake
slip between high wires
slide past bony twigs
and loop through the air
to meld with a stainless pole
Let the bold red sign
slice the long cold wind
with cutlass whispers
and the faintest tremble
of uncertainty
Let its white rim rest
against the calloused grip
of a puffed brown robin
dark beak twitching
to thoughts of spring
Let its bright song seep
through small gray cracks
and creep from the alleyways
to finger glazed reflections
faces creased with care
