Write Erase Write Erase Poem by RIC BASTASA

this is what happens to this poem
when you have nothing to write
tonight....write, erase, write, erase

you are waiting
for an inspiration that does not come

you keep on waiting and then something comes
you write it, you think about it, you read it and you find nothing
worth the letter you assign to it
then you erase it and you are honest enough to admit that there is nothing
beautiful
not even a purpose, and then you write the word again, you ponder, there is
nothing worth its existence
there is nothing to grow in that word chosen
you erase it again, you write it and then there is this space of thinking,

what is it? you ask. what is it really?
it is this denial.
this negation of
what you are
that keeps you writing.

you stand by the window. Look out
the road. You see a dog, and it is howling again
to the moon
and to the wrong tree
it is barking.