Tutoring: Writing A Poem For English Class

Tutoring: Writing A Poem For English Class

Each syllable is
Painstakingly strained through the sieve
Of two languages
Then squeezed onto the page
Blood from a tiny pin prick

It's tortuous
Watching, waiting
I want to reach out
Snatch the pen from him and scream:

Here's how it's done!

My brain teems
Words tumbling, white water word rapids
To the point that I reach
For another pen while he sits, face as blank
As his page

Just create a picture with words, I tell him
Don't worry about telling a story

Pen poised in a death grip
He drips three words out
On a page screaming to be filled
While I watch his pen salivate

And I write a hundred words...

To him: Just keep going. Let them just come.

Or am I alone in this bombardment?
The avalanche of words?

© Lori Wiens MacDonald 2012