A Small Poem Is All I Am Capable Of Poem by Shalom Freedman

A SMALL POEM IS ALL I AM CAPABLE OF

A small poem is all I am capable of now
No patience
No strength
No ability to sit and sit for hours
No flowing narrative in mind
No long uninterrupted connection

A little broken set of lines
Is all I am capable of

Ten or fifteen high speed minutes
Gone over and over later

And then made right
Also in a short time

A small poem in broken small times
Is all I am capable of

This doesn't mean it's not alright
But it only is what it is
And can be nothing more

Nothing like those larger structures of meaning
I am no longer
And never really was
Capable of

And the poetry of the poetry
Is less also.