Bruce Balan - The Poem I Would Write

THE POEM I WOULD WRITE

The poem I would write if

I remembered it

would be about

you

It was there this morning

in the grey light it snuck in under

the barely-open hatch

finding me beneath the covers

finding me enough to turn me in my sleep

push my dream aside

so that I thought

– while groggy as the slow roll of the boat --

this will be my poem for today

It will be about

you

And there it was

my poem about you:  

beautiful and poetic

succinct with a knowing depth

We shared our moment

the poem and I

until, content in my new knowledge

I pulled the covers up

went back to sleep

while the poem

laughing at my folly

slipped out of the hatch

and ran away

across the sea.

© Bruce Balan. All rights reserved.

I'm excited to have Bruce Balan here at 30 Poets/30 Days this year. And... oh, yes! A poem about poems. And a doozy, at that because, of course, it's about more than a poem....

A little backstory here, in the poet's own words: "April Halprin Wayland and I have been writing a poem every day and sharing it with each other since 2012. Thus, every day I am looking for a new poem. Sometimes they find me without my looking, but I have to make sure to pay attention or, as usually happens, they will give up on me.

This one was written while anchored at Isla Maria Cleofas about 50 miles off the Pacific coast of Mexico."

Amazingly, this post was written from the same place!!! (Well, at least in my mind.... I am anchored at my desk, truth be told. But still, I can close my eyes and run away across the sea, too.)