Poetry Day

It's May 13th and I haven't posted a poem all month so I thought I'd take the easy way out today and post one! I say easy but it really isn't. I have to search for a poem I like and then decide if it's postable. Poetry affects me and some poems feel so personal to me that I can't post them. That actually makes sense in a strange way! Anyway here is the one I decided on for today. I like this line - words that pulled you from the depths of unknowing. Writing does that for me. It's a way to figure out what I mean and where I'm going. I especially like the last two lines of this. I'm trying to make the sun rise again and it isn't easy but this afternoon I'm feeling a little closer than I did this morning. . . .

Writing in the Dark
by Denise Levertov

It's not difficult
Anyway, it's necessary.

Wait till morning, and you'll forget.
And who knows if morning will come.

Fumble for the light,
and you'll be
stark awake, but the vision
will be fading, slipping
out of reach.

You must have paper at hand,
a felt-tip pen, ballpoints don't always flow,
pencil points tend to break. There's nothing
shameful in that much prudence those are our tools.

Never mind about crossing your t's, dotting your i's---
but take care not to cover
one word with the next. Practice will reveal
how one hand instinctively comes to the aid of the other
to keep each line
clear of the next.

Keep writing in the dark:
a record of the night, or
words that pulled you from the depths of unknowing,
words that flew through your mind, strange birds
crying their urgency with human voices,

or opened
as flowers of a tree that blooms
only once in a lifetime:

words that may have the power
to make the sun rise again.