Can you teach someone
how to write a poem?
I'd like to know.
For me, a poem simply shows itself.
It plods its heavy boots
down the creaky
staircase of my mind
and then drags its weathered soles
across the page until
it comes to the end of the line.
Or a poem may rise
from the fire pit in my gut
and pour itself out -
bubbling, burning the page
until all is ash,
quiet and still.
But most of the time
it bellows from my heart,
exhales and crescendos
over the page
until it rests, needing nothing more...
like the final note of a song.
Can you teach that?
I'd like to know.
And then I'd like to learn
how to fly.