You Do the Maths

They go back, my commonplace books

to 1997.

And I’ve been keeping them assiduously,

some might say, obsessively, ever since,

4 or 5  a year. So that’s ……

Well, you do the maths.

What goes in?

Rough copies of poems I’m working on

but also poems I really like,

not just famous, well known poems

but poems posted on WordPress,

yes, poems, you, you and you have written.

I let you know when that occurs.

What determines entry?

Poems that fizz and buzz with energy,

not lazy poems, boring poems, safe poems

but poems that are a little transgressive, poems with edge,

that court oddball words, that experiment with language,

but cool poems, calm poems too

poems that are marked with the individuality of the writer.

Occasionally I cut ineffective lines, passages that don’t work,

It’s the editor in me. But they are stronger for it.

I don’t need to ask permission. They are for my eyes only.

They are poems I read over and over again for inspiration,

for warmth, for comfort – even when they bristle. .

And what have I discovered in all my writing and collating?

I do my best work in the cold.