June 2017
Lisa Wiley
wileymoz@yahoo.com
wileymoz@yahoo.com
I studied with Billy Collins July 2013 in the Southampton Writers Conference on Long Island. I live with my husband, three children and two orange cats in Buffalo, NY where I teach creative writing and composition at Erie Community College. When I'm not running, I'm writing. My two chapbooks include My Daughter Wears Her Evil Eye to School (The Writer's Den, 2015) and Chamber Music (Finishing Line Press, 2013).
When I Can’t Start a Poem
it’s like scratching two pieces of flint
and never getting a spark,
like calling in the Boy Scouts,
who can’t generate enough friction either.
Even the matches, soggy with rain,
while the troop waits to roast marshmallows.
Resorting to fixed form,
like pouring a tin of lighter fluid
over the whole woodpile.
So pungent, forced,
a sudden conflagration hard to control,
yet a welcome space to gather and sing.
When I Can’t Start a Poem
it’s like scratching two pieces of flint
and never getting a spark,
like calling in the Boy Scouts,
who can’t generate enough friction either.
Even the matches, soggy with rain,
while the troop waits to roast marshmallows.
Resorting to fixed form,
like pouring a tin of lighter fluid
over the whole woodpile.
So pungent, forced,
a sudden conflagration hard to control,
yet a welcome space to gather and sing.
© 2017 Lisa Wiley
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