Tricking Yourself Back Into the World

Wildflowers on Bull Creek by Patrick Larson
A New Poet
by Linda Pastan

Finding a new poet
is like finding a new wildflower
out in the woods. You don't see

its name in the flower books, and
nobody you tell believes
in its odd color or the way

its leaves grow in splayed rows
down the whole length of the page. In fact
the very page smells of spilled

red wine and the mustiness of the sea
on a foggy day - the odor of truth
and of lying.

And the words are so familiar,
so strangely new, words
you almost wrote yourself, if only

in your dreams there had been a pencil
or a pen or even a paintbrush,
if only there had been a flower.

Croissant by Craig StephensPetit Dejeuner
by Linda Pastan

I sing a song
of the croissant
and of the wily French
who trick themselves daily
back to the world
for its sweet ceremony.
Ah to be reeled
up into morning
on that crisp,
buttery
hook.

Posted with permission of Ms. Pastan, Mr. Larson, and Mr. Stephens.

More:

* The Answering Machine
* The Months
* The Deathwatch Beetle
* Transcription of a PBS NewsHour interview with Linda Pastan

This week's Poetry Friday round-up is at Madigan Reads.