How to Find the Muse

Hey, it’s National Poetry Month, so I’ve decided to post a few poems this April.  It’s been fun for me to look back over my decades-long collection of poems to find a few that will be just right for this moment in time.  None of those wild, whiny, passionate unrequited love poems I seemed prone to writing back in my youth!  This is a fun one that was included in an anthology called Unlacing:  Ten Irish-American Women Poets, edited by Patricia Monaghan in 1987.  I felt very honored to be included in this book!!

 

How to Find the Muse

 

Think about the sky.

 

It’s a new blue tablecloth

and a big-hipped woman

has carelessly dribbled

gobs of whipped cream

all over it.

 

There she has set down

an orange bowl.

Smell cinnamon and coriander

as you scoop spicy carrots

and squash from the bowl

to you mouth.

Bite into a raw cucumber

to cool the fiery curry

on your tongue.

 

Now drum your fingertips

on the table.

Listen to a jazz quartet.

Tap your feet

on a black and white

tiled floor.

When she starts to sing

those torchy blues

press your lips together

and hum

until  you taste sweetened cream

spilling

from the sky.

 

Photo by なるほど on Unsplash

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