An Ars Poetica
Most of them begin with a few words
read in some book or a phrase over
heard scratched on a bit of paper
these chits go into the side pocket
of my jacket usually they stay there
until the coat is so spotted it must
be sent to the cleaners when I empty
the pocket most of the slips go into
the wastebasket but a few are pasted
with Scotch tape on the bathroom mir
ror where I see them when I’m shaving
some stay there a long time but with
some there is an urgency they come
into my head when I wake to pee in
the middle of the night more words
come with them almost faster than I
can scribble on the yellow pad on the
bedtable the words beget other words
(it’s like spilled milk spreading on
the kitchen floor) words making other
words I don’t make them they make
themselves into the poem but some
times in the morning I can’t read
what I’ve written (because I wrote
in the dark) so that’s the end of
that one it’s had its say and it
won’t come back I write in darkness.
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