Elise Skidmore

I have been thinking about poetry.
I haven't been writing poetry lately,
but I've been thinking about it.

A lot.

Ideas and poetic phrases
crash into my brain while I'm driving
like bugs on a windshield,
but unlike the windshield
it doesn't take fluid and a swish of a wiper
to clean the splatter;
a car pulling in front of me
or a stop sign will do it.
Sometimes all it takes
is the blink of an eye.

I want to write.
I want to feel the ebb and flow
as thoughts and words connect,
where I hear the click of 
the pieces coming together 
and know a poem is being born.

At work I'll jot down possibilities
that float through my mind
as I toil through a day 
of mindless repetition,
in hope I'll be reminded
of what I thought might
become a poem 

if 
(such a big word, 
despite being only 2 letters)

I am able to breathe life into the words.
All too often by the time opportunity presents itself,
no amount of resuscitation
or bleeding on the page
will bring the almost poem to life.
It has flown into the realm of spirit
where unwritten poetry floats
until it finds another would-be poet
more up to the task.

I want to be that poet, 
worthy of the ideas 
the universe sends me.
I force myself into my chair,
think about poetry,
and begin to write.

~Elise Skidmore ©2021