Starting a poem

should be like starting

a crank Model-T Ford.

Starting a poem

should be like starting

the Universe

God made some mistakes—

it’s okay for you to make some mistakes.

Your work is beautiful, even the ugly stuff.

It’s a facelift

with fish lips

Call it good—

that’s what God did.

Fish are fish

Women are women

Men get confused.

The goal

is to be outside of that goal—

not to sink into that deep dark hole

where the fish are.

Passion

is seldom shared by anyone.

It leaks out, like slug slime

I have been in the throes of ecstasy

when I was alone.

Fish will strip a whale to the bone.

Starting a poem

is like planting a tree

it feeds you and me

it offers shade

from the blistering sun

It begins small,

and then grows bigger

than anyone.