A NOTE FROM YOUR FRIENDLY POETRY INSTRUCTOR
You think you can’t write about a mud puddle?
YOU CAN WRITE ABOUT A MUD PUDDLE.
Whattaya think you can’t write about that puddle
for? Huh? You think people gonna say some shit?
Gonna call your poem trash? Gonna call you trash?
Say old water lying in the dirt is too boring for a
poem? WELL THEN HOW COME YOU CAN
SEE A BRIGHT YELLOW DAFFODIL SHINING
ALONE ACROSS ITS CALM-ASS SURFACE LIKE
A NEW PLANET RIGHT THERE IN THE DIRT?
HUH? HOW COME? IT’S A GODDAMN
MOMENT, THAT’S WHY. IT’S A REMINDER
OF HOW SMALL WE ALL ARE BUT ALSO
HOW LARGE AND IT’S 100% YOURS TO
REMEMBER SO I SAY YOU CAN WRITE IT.
When have you ever written a poem and somebody
said it was trash? Even thought about it being trash?
Huh? Whattaya mean they have? WELL FUCK
THEM! YOU THINK THOSE PIECES OF SHIT
ARE OUT DOING THE HARD WORK MAKING
POEMS WHEN THEY’RE TOO BUSY BLAB-
BING ABOUT YOURS? NO! YOU TELL THEM
TO SEE ME FOR A GODDAMN ATTITUDE
ADJUSTMENT OR SHUT THE FUCK UP. You
write that poem about the mud puddle AND your
tiny big luminous daffodil self and you share it
anyplace you please because nobody’s gonna say
shit unless they say IT’S A GODDAMN WONDER
YOU WROTE IT AND YOU KNOW WHY?
BECAUSE IT’S TRUE, THAT’S WHY.
—from Rattle #76, Summer 2022
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Abby E. Murray: “I write poetry because it is the only thing I have been able to take with me everywhere I’ve been sent. I also enjoy it. As Marvin Bell said, I write poems ‘because it feels so good.’” (web)
