Wednesday,
Trying to catch up on my posts. All poets write at least two (or more) poems about writing poems. here's one that I revised. Original was written about six months ago. It's always good to go back, I think, and rework poems... even if you believed the original draft was "just right." Why? Well, because things change, your skills get sharper and maybe you see things clearer than you did when you wrote the first draft.
Ghost Poetry
Early, early morning. It’s
early morning.
The brain’s already sleeping.
Consciousness snores lightly, tight
behind
those blurry eyes that still try
to count
the sheep leaping about like wooly
ballet dancers
inside my skull. Where are all
my ghosts tonight?
Often enough they’re premature,
sitting cross-legged
in the cobweb corner next to my
bike, tapping gray toes
against the carpeted floor. You
see, haunting's not
much fun for them as I
bee-busily scratch out another poem.
And they don't like it when I
include them in some random
non-rhyme I’ve created right
before my beddy-bye.
Rather shy my demons past. They
refuse to talk.
They know too well, any mad
ramblings or ghostly
gossip they choose to spill
will wind-up on the page.
For there’s nothing’s sacred to
a true poet, not the dead,
living or the dying. All that
forgotten youth, childhood
distortions, all those tiny
minded monsters old men adore;
they’ll show themselves when
the coffee’s stale enough,
when there’s little else worth
writing about.
—rrw o2-17-13 (rewrites
o8-o7-13)
