You know you are in trouble
when the only poetry you read
that you can make any sense of
is your own
when the only poetry you read
that you can make any sense of
is your own
a clear sign
that your focus is all wrong
and you are facing the wrong way
worried about too many things
all internal
and all the while
endlessly searching
for new inspiration
with no clear idea
of what you're looking for.
Sometimes I fly over a poem
and gaze down upon it
like a crow over a corn field
only to see an endless stretch
of verses reaching to the horizon
and I immediately realize
I have nowhere near
the energy or inspiration required
to begin such a journey
so I slink away
carrying the slightest
short-lived pang of guilt
wondering if
perhaps
I have just given up
on the one that may have
as the gentleman said
made all the difference.
Ken Owen July 2023
Van Niddy Press
I know exactly what you mean! I keep a poem with me always:
ReplyDeleteIt was lost for good, I thought, the writing, but no,
as the poet says and I quote, it is like a very faint star,
if you look straight at it you can't see it but if you look a little to one side it is there.
It's that speck, the floater in my right eye
torn from the back of the retina and lodged
a little to the right of my vision. The particle
I kept trying to blink away and couldn't,
nothing but irreversible loss, damage,
until the eye became habituated, and I forgot.
Now, to bring it back I stare, unfocused,
into a middle distance. The speck floats,
steady as a planet.
-- Kinereth Gensler, "Writing Poetry"