Poetry, Please Speak to Me (2007)

Poetry is Not a Luxury,
Audre Lorde writes,
It is a necessity.
Let me tell you what happens
when poetry leaves me--
I no longer feel Her empathy.

Poetry's soft hands held me close
for fifteen years
as nightmares attacked
during my darkest moments.
Her ears open to my questions
I could ask no other to hear.

One awful, tumultuous day I turned
my back on Poetry,
choosing medicine
to slow the pumping of my heart
to ease the pace of my breath.
As the doctor scratched her pen across
the prescription pad, I heard Poetry sigh.
The sweat on my brow tasted of her cries.

I swallowed faithfully each white tablet
conveniently forgetting Alice's lesson:
Pills will not always lead one to her chosen wonderland.
As my body calmed, my mind's eye slept
And Poetry disappeared.

A year later, She still hadn't returned.
I threw out the pills, climbed out of this new hole,
wishing the pen would spill its ink over the page--
Nothing, only a few dots here and there.

I longed for Her powerfulness to carve out
the unknown feelings and ideas stuck deep inside.
All the chants and spells cannot call Her back.
She can be so stubborn.
I refuse to leave her in the past, to let her go
even though Her hand I may never again hold.

Poetry is Not a Luxury,
Audre Lorde writes,
It is a necessity.
Let me tell you what happens
when poetry leaves me--
I no longer feel Her empathy.