Do Not Run From Your Poet Self
or No One Really Has To Know The Whole Story

~ for Billy Collins

do not fear your poet self

when you discover him under your life boat hiding

do not punish him like a pathetic stow away

what he has to say

will not throw you overboard

he is you as much as you are he

do not say who is that

that writes this

I do not know him

no matter what he says

it will not hurt for long

just a little pinch

like a doctor giving a shot

his words will heal you in the end

it will hurt him more than it hurts you

he will not preserve your pain

only hold it up shining to the night

like a broken sexton

after a while you will be released from your agony

you will be left at peace and adrift

in a small boat now all your own

 

you will have clean water and food for your mind

perhaps a wooden oar or a golden sail full of wind if you wish

and a map just in case you are ever lost here again

never call it mutiny

or torture the words that swirl in his wake

as he slips beneath the waves hoarse from screaming

for it was he who spoke up when you bobbed

and wretched your way across the lonely sea

and you know you will need his help again