WRITING POETRY

by Lucille Hamilton

2015

Grab the words as they flee in the darkness
as you try to describe the beauty of the star overhead
or the wind that won't stand waiting as you search
for a pencil.

Why even try,
when words are earthbound and cannot take the leap
that even approximates the feelings.

It is impossible;
you have to make that effort, nevertheless,
in order to honor
all the gasping beauty of this
magnificent world.

Sometimes you have an opening with the words
that,
when they are put on paper,
you do not want them read aloud -
they sound better to the mind's eye
if read in quiet silence.

Search in your life's experience
for the right - just the right word,

leather-bound somewhere in your vocabulary.