POEMS ON WRITING POEMS

Malcolm Ritchie2

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

This entry was posted on in homepage and tagged , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.