To Write a Poem

To write a poem

You must pretend to sleep,

Sitting up

With a pen,

For if you jump up

To catch the Muse,

All is washed away

Like a dream upon awakening.

There are no better lines

Than those in dreams.

Sleep opens to visions and

Images to truths untold as dreams slip

Into the darkness of the rising sun.

Trance is a collage of words

Dissipating in a fog if jostled,

Fluttering like butterflies

Caught in a net ready to escape.

Mindless chatter forming maxims

Quenched by quiet rumination,

Taking form in rhyme and meter.

In dreams the Muse tells secrets.

Poets can never sleep.

 

Copyright © 2017 Barbara Harris Leonhard

Image: Pixabay.com

 

 

 

10 thoughts on “To Write a Poem

Add yours

  1. Beautiful poem! I love the last line and the paradox with the second line – so true to the attention that poets pay to both the internal and external world, consciously and not. I appreciate hearing you read your poems, too.

    Thank you for following my blog!

    Liked by 1 person

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