I’ve always worried over that phrase to
‘put it down’ referring to writing while
it suggests killing:
‘Old Saxon’ ‘writan’ means ‘to cut’,
‘to injure’, and ‘to write’.
“The pen is mightier than the sword”.
‘Words’ is an anagram of ‘sword’
-
the pen already writing
in blood.
*
as i pick up my pen
no one can see the poem
stuck on its nib
*
my poem is a shadow a trace
like the recorded path of a neutrino
passed on
*
sometimes a poem appears unexpectedly
like a rainbow –
reminder of the promise held
within the invisible
*
no spell or magic no art or craft
no skill or aptitude could fasten
just this meaning to a sheet of paper
you me trembling on the brink of this
nowhere here now
NB ‘here now’ is an anagram of ‘nowhere’
soon all that will be
of myself will be
the poems where i’ve been
*
i should write poems in water
not this ink
*
for this moment i’m here and not here –
this poem tethering me/not me
like a dragonfly
to the nib of a reed
*
a wasp steals wood from my writing desk
to pulp paper for its poem-nest
*
while i sweat and struggle with words
under a tree
a crane-fly lays her eggs effortlessly
in the surrounding grass
*
wish i could write like
the breathing of a shakuhachi
*Traditional Japanese bamboo flute
.
.
Malcolm Ritchie’s latest collection small lines on the great earth was published in 2014 by Longhouse, Vermont, at www.LonghousePoetry.com