POETS THOUGHTS

I am not one of those writers who can simply continue to write on a schedule when big things are happening--like the holiday season. I grab snatches of time when I can, write a few pages on my latest book, keep up with correspondance (cards, letters, emails), but I don't seem to be able to create new articles, essays, stories--until the busyness settles down. This year, however, something grabbed me and wouldn't let go.

A very knowledgable writer/poet friend, Patricia Spork, gave me an answer for what was spewing out of my pen and pencil--not into the computer. She proposed that something wild and wonderful was going on inside this B-B (not her words, but mine) brain. I was creating pages and pages of what she called "Poets Thoughts." Whatever these short pieces of free verse are, they intrigue me.

I don't know where they come from. I don't know where they are going although Patricia says I should publish a pamphlette of them--to go along with those other pamphlettes that are selling like hot cakes (that's tongue in cheek, folks). Anyway, my thought about these are this: somewhere, sometime I will use them. I, and I urge you to heed my message here, will not throw them out as utter foolishness. I always tell my students you never know when you will want just that very note, paragraph, story or whatever you have thrown away.

Here's a few I'll share.

Early in the morning
Women of the night
Scurry past women
rushing to proper jobs,
Never giving each other
a glance,
an acknowledgment
of how alike they really are.


Drink deep with joy
Breathe the fragrance each day.
Drain the cup.
Leave no doubts or dreams
in the bottom.


Misued.
Abandoned.
Well-traded.
Property.
Haunted.
No lifeline.
Woman.

So, what do you think they are?

HAPPY NEW DAYS COMING UP FOR ALL OF YOU.