Ars Poetica

Katherine Goldblatt

Words tumble out of our mouths.

The things we speak are weighted and

so heavy, yet so full, vibrant,

packed with life:

They can slide over as a butter

or sharply cut and wound; a serrated knife

brought to a gunfight where the shots fired

hurt far more than bullet wounds.

Speech only grows

through poetry and prose; woe is one

who does not nurture their tongue like a rose

and water it with knowledge, with delicacies

of language known and used by the best of us,

with the goal being to grow more than what is

expected of us!

The power of one single phrase can rustle

the feathers of those who just simply want to

see the breeze go through the trees, but it is necessary

to practice this speech

to unfreeze the lease of the beast of ignorance.