Thursday, January 22, 2015

The Poet’s Nightmare —New Murfin Verse



Process, you ask.  How do you create a poem?  Here’s one way.  Pathetic when you think about it.



The Poet’s Nightmare 
I wake up in a drenching sweat                  
            distraught
            for want of a word     
            for a douche bag.

No, not some low life idiot,   
            the thing
            that hung once
            in the bathroom
            that smelled of lavender
            where stockings dripped
            from the shower rod
            and steam misted
            the pink flamingo decals
            on the mirror.

I need the word that will not come
            with consuming urgency.

It has a place in a line of verse
            spelling itself out
            in hand carved wooden
            Gothic print blocks
            on old linen paper.

A hundred times it seems
            that it is almost there
            ready to fall into
            its urgent place.

And vanishes.

—Patrick Murfin
January 22, 2015
3:43 am



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