Poetry
I’ll start with a disclosure: I don’t do poetry. Or so I thought, until I learned that Aracelis Girmay, an acclaimed American poet, was coming to Geneva to give a workshop at the Geneva Press Club. As I love going to GWG (Geneva Writers’ Group) meetings, I thought to myself – why not, I’ll give it a go.
The workshop was fantastic, and to my great surprise, a prose poem came straight onto the paper without any effort. I didn’t take it too seriously, which helped, so when Aracelis asked us to write something about an object we are NOT, this is what I came up with.
I Could Never Be a Pencil
I could never be a pencil
for I would worry
that what I write could be changed
into something else
and then
it would be wrong
and it would make me sad
I could never be a pencil
for I would not want to
carry around an eraser
giving others the opportunity
to erase what they have said
or done
as if it didn’t matter
and it would make me mad
I could never be a pencil
for it would make me insecure
uncertain of what I want to say
able to speak before thinking
write down without blinking
knowing it is easy to ammend
so I rather be a pen instead
Not sure where this came from and what it all means, but one thing for sure: I’ll can never again claim I am not interested in poetry! Thank you, Aracelis.