poem of the day 09.28.09

poem to the girl reading
john gardner’s “introduction
to fiction writing” on the morning
train

poor fool
you can’t learn
how to write that way
you’ve got
to learn it by
putting your life
through the fire
and back out again.

you’ve got to burn
our your soul
and run down your
heart until it might not
ever want
to beat again.

you’ve got to
tear out
your dreams
and lay them
at the feet
of the laughing gods.

so put down
the goddamned
gardner for christ’s sake
and go and lay down
in traffic
with crazy, drunken eyes
to watch the dying stars.

and if that
won’t do you
carve a circle into
your skin
to see if you can
still bleed.