AT THE READY

AT THE READY

                                    —for William Stafford, (     - 1993)

Poetry will always be a wild animal. . .

that won’t yield to ordinary learning.

I tell students to let their minds lean

forward and fill in the missing words

to reclaim the self, the poetic soul

lost in Dante’s inferno.

Descend into writing to reclaim the poetic word.

We need no longer discern

between the dreaming and the waking.

Words will unveil the self to the self.

Reality bends itself toward sleep

to emerge as the wingtips of doved hands.

If we are lazy we will never find the way—

The muse only comes to those

who are holding the pen at the ready

for small dark blossoms to bloom on the page.

1/14/94             Bodega Bay