Occasionally I’m asked what it is like to write poetry.
mostly, a poem is like a fish that fights the line,
and a poet a fisherman that doesn’t want to fight,
and thought, a line that breaks under tension.

Yet there are times,
unaided by fisherman or line, 
a poem simply jumps in the boat
whole, inexplicable, stunned
as surprised by itself as you are
this is what poets mean 
when they say they discover a poem

And discovering poems is why 
we put up with writing them
the experience of jumping
leaving the water
expecting to have gravity
take you back
and by nothing but dumb luck
finding a boat 
being taken beyond
          gasping

Check out other work in the Practicing My Writerly Gaze series here.