Joie de Vivre
It helps
to think
of every poem
as a death-
defying act,
so write
with joie de vivre
and know
that death
is taken aback.
poetry
If You Want to Write
If You Want to Write
No writing is a waste of time….With every sentence you write,
you have learned something. It has done you good. ― Brenda Ueland
Some days the dog will go
unfed, most surely un-washed
and -combed. Your wife
or lover will languish
in bed upstairs, driven finally
to watch foreign films
with English subtitles
until he or she gives up,
adjusts the covers,
and turns out the light. Your
kids will hone survival
skills like baking
fries or frozen pizzas, maybe
even learning to spot the least
dirty school uniform
in a large, abandoned pile. But
you will feel every comma
like a stroke
of good luck, fall in love
with random words—
weevil, genus, rugosa,
and burred—sit in silence
and ambient smoke
till the last line appears,
and you have done some good.