By Professor Hendree B. Milward III
Occasionally I'm asked what it is like to write poetry.
mostly, a poem is like a fish that fights the line,
and a poet a fisherman that doesn't want to fight,
and thought, a line that breaks under tension.
Yet there are times,
unaided by fisherman or line,
the poem simply jumps in the boat
whole, inexplicable, stunned
as surprised by itself as you are
this is what poets mean
when they say they discover a poem
And discovering poems is why
we put up with writing them
the experience of jumping
leaving the water
expecting to have gravity
take you back
and by nothing but dumb luck
finding a boat
being taken beyond
gasping
Hendree B. Milward III is Professor of Mathematics at CT State Tunxis.
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