Write as though you have in
Hand: the Last Pencil on earth²
Between my fingers & my thumb
The Squat Pen rests – I’ll Dig with it³
Writing is the Permeable Edge – between
Inward Meditation & Outward Connectivity⁴
Bring nib to Page & pen to Life with Urgency &
Patience, word by word – with Abandon & Care⁵
Writing is an act of Silencing a Creature Flapping
Within: on the page the Monster is Released from
The Recesses within, free to Unsettle other minds⁶
When I Write I’m Chasing a Shadow – and it’s
My chasing that keeps the shadow in motion⁷
All my Books Blur into the word: “Write”⁸
Utter the thought into Flame which burns
At your Heart – this is the Curse: Write⁹
The moving Finger Writes –
And having writ, moves on¹⁰
¹ George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four
² Charles Wright, Body and Soul
³ Seamus Heaney, Digging
⁴ Ann Lauterbach, Task: To Open
⁵ Daniel Scott Tysdal, A MAD Fold-In Poem
⁶ Mya De La Rosa, Rattle Young Poet’s Anthology Contributor’s Notes
⁷ Bernard Noël tr. Susanna Nied
⁸ Edmond Jabès tr. Rosemarie Waldrop, Notebook II
⁹ Elizabeth Barrett Browning, The Curse
¹⁰ Omar Khayyám tr. Edward Fitzgerald, Rubaiyat