poetry wednesday : invent one.
Reply to the Question: “How can You Become a Poet?”
-Eve Merriam
- take the leaf of a tree
- trace its exact shape
- the outside edges
- and inner lines
memorize the way it is fastened to the twig
(and how the twig arches from the branch)
how it springs forth in April
how it is panoplied in July
by late August
crumple it in your hand
so that you smell its end-of-summer sadness
chew its woody stem
listen to its autumn rattle
watch it as it atomizes in the November air
then in winter
when there is no leaf left
- invent one
[image from here]