A Conversation with the Poet

I have to watch from overdoing some tendencies when I write poetry. Here’s a recent talking-to I had with myself.


A Conversation with the Poet

Be leery of words too common in the trade.
Enrapture, begone, even blue should be used with caution.
Avoid sunrise, sunsets, and apple blossoms.
Better to find new words for where day breaks, night collapses.
Choose the apple tree when fruit and leaves have bared
crooked gray branches to cold air.

I’m sorry to tell you the birds will have to go.
We hear their song, yes, but they’ve been making noise too long.
Skimp on what glitters. Be prudent describing the acrobatics of cats.
If you insist on roses, consider thorns instead of petals,
though in every case, watch out for too much metaphor
as you track down the secrets of the universe,
mysterious codes that crack paths to happiness

or a single bird on a branch. You can change your mind.
Birds are all right to put in poems after all.

For the Poetry Friday roundup, please visit A Teaching Life,  a blog I recently discovered and like very much for Tara’s takes on poetry and a variety of ways to write.