Writing a Poem

Writing a Poem

Poem by Iris Carden

You can write a poem
give it structure and rhyme
but maybe you don't want to 
so you don't.

You can give it a rhythm
that rolls off the tongue,
that makes the words feel
like they should be sung.

Or you can
abandon structure,
rhythm, and rhyme,
and let your mind just go
chasing a random idea.
Then you write a  
rambling,
ambling,
occasionally scrambling,
mindlessly meandering,
unguided,
unplanned, 
totally out of hand,
getting harder to understand,
undirected,
disconnected,
oh there's a cat,
stream-of-consciousness vomit.

You can distill wisdom into 
short and simple words.
You can obfuscate stupidity
with grandiloquent, obscure terms.

You can bend language
like a prism bends the light.
You can inspire dreams,
give imagination flight.

The poet has the power
of words and where they go.
But if it's any good,
only the reader knows.

While you’re here…

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