Pen to Paper

 

 

 

 

 

Craft Talk

 

 

I did not know then (nor, for that matter,

do I know now) how to do what it is

I’m doing, other than to try to use my pen

to lure whatever creatures may reside

just out of sight onto the blank page and

into the light. Not unlike a guitarist

fingering notes at random until a song

begins to take shape as if by accident,

or a poet jotting lists of random words,

only afterwards making note of the echoes,

overtones, emergent patterns, misdirections,

dead ends. After which what remains may,

on a good day, take on a life of its own,

and turn out at last to be a pleasant surprise.