How It Is Done

Readers of this blogg may already know that I have sometimes played with words to the extent of making - that is, writing poetry - as you can see from my recent partial "index" which is over on the left; I hope to arrange this better as time goes on. But! Recently I have been reading some excellent poems over on This Red Rock and so I thought I would post the poem I wrote about the writing of poems... (I am sure you can add the footnotes if you are really in the mood - I neglected to put them in this time. But if you need more detail, ask, and I will put them in for you.)

-- Dr. Thursday

How it is done

Ingredients brought from vast, far-flung scenes,
Instructions on thousands of pages,
Formed in a factory of monstrous machines,
Unseen by the OSHA-watched gauges...

Near the wise and knowing treasure-room,
Where Love best and warmest ever burns;
There Rhyme and Reason bring thread to the loom,
Mercy is oiling gears Justice turns.

The Factor beholds the workplace prepared,
His long-sought destination this day,
A risk and a danger that few have dared,
Talent his duty; he must obey.

His choice and plan - a simple two-fold frame
Ten and nine, with strength surpassing steel;
Its parts not repeated, somehow the same;
Locked, hidden structure, made to reveal.

Components from warehouses, tanks, and mines,
Forests, kitchens, cellars and attics,
He sets into place; the framework entwines
By some numberless mathematics.

When all is ready, he power applies;
Light shines, which is totally other.
He inspects the result: "Success!" he cries,
And shows the new poem to another.

[September 20, 1994.]