The Trouble With Poetry Is That It

Vade Mecum I Want The Scissors To Be Sharp And The Table Perfectly Level When You Cut Me Out Of My Life And Paste Me In That Book You Always Carry.

I See All Of Us Reading Ourselves Away From Ourselves, Straining In Circles Of Light To Find More Light Until The Line Of Words Becomes A Trail Of Crumbs That We Follow Across A Page Of Fresh Snow.

There's This Pet Phrase About Writing That Is Bandied Around Particularly In Workshops About "finding Your Own Voice As A Poet", Which I Suppose Means That You Come Out From Under The Direct Influence Of Other Poets And Have Perhaps Found A Way To Combine Those Influences So That It Appears To Be Your Own Voice. But I Think You Could Also Put It A Different Way. You, Quote, Find Your Voice, Unquote, When You Are Able To Invent This One Character Who Resembles You, Obviously, And Probably Is More Like You Than Anyone Else On Earth, But Is Not The Equivalent To You.

I Could Look At You Forever And Never See The Two Of Us Together

The Poem Is Not, As Someone Put It, Deflective Of Entry. But The Real Question Is, 'what Happens To The Reader Once He Or She Gets Inside The Poem?' That's The Real Question For Me, Is Getting The Reader Into The Poem And Then Taking The Reader Somewhere, Because I Think Of Poetry As A Kind Of Form Of Travel Writing.