Poem: August 17, 2021

Initiating Energy

It happens when

we analyze a poem.

I’m at the board

and I ask, 

What do you see?

And at first

the room hesitates, 

looks down 

at its collective feet

until one half-hand

has the half-courage

to half-lift itself up

just enough so I notice

and a quiet voice asks,

Did anyone else think it was weird that…

and then, yes, so many

ideas falling over each other- what if,

but couldn’t it, I imagined, why not, 

connotation, end stop, reversal, personification, tone-

and I say prove it 

and step aside to let the big idea bus through.

Then, 

when it all

winds down

to a long 

pause,

I say, Look at the title. Have you considered the title?

And then smile to hear the engine rev.