I was accepted into my MFA program!!

Two years from this Fall I will have a Masters in Fine Arts of Creative Writing with my concentration in Poetry from Eastern Oregon University.

I just wanted to share my joy and happiness with my fellow writers and (sort of) my peer group.


:)

I sat on the grass reading a book of poetry
Relating different passages to my own life
Attempting to put myself in the shoes of the author
Reading and re-reading each and every line
Recognizing some deeper truth behind the words
Experiencing a kinship with this style of expression

I had to try my hand at this style of expression
Begin my journey into writing poetry
Make it a part of my life
Just as was the way with this author
But how to come up with a first line
How does one choose which words……..

I began searching for the best words
To encompass my type of personal expression
In order to create ‘Sam specific’ poetry
Something that would take on its own life
And become more than just the work of an author
For those in need, an actual life-line

But I had to begin with just a single line
Built of the greatest most impactful words
This would be the only way to release my expression
And truly encompass poetry
Make it the most important part of my life
Re-create myself as a successful author

But I was no real author
Just a man seeking the perfect starting line
A hunter carefully tracking special words
To give life to my joyful expression
Wishing only to give someone else what I received from poetry
Wishing to share this part of my life

I had never felt this way in my whole life
The way in which the language was used by the author
How cleverly crafted each single line
The purposeful choice of certain words
Creating a fully formed expression
Laid forth within the walls of poetry

My routes of expression changed with the addition of written words
Each line brought me closer to the dream of becoming an author
I knew that my life would be forever filled with poetry

I knew we would never, ever be blue
When I looked into those eyes
Shoo-be-doobie-shoobie-doo

Our love was so pure and true
Filled with long gazes and loving sighs
I knew we would never, ever be blue

Her words of love rung, oh, so true
Puffy clouds float by in the bluest skies
Shoo-be-doobie-shoobie-doo

Each day together this love just grew
The type of love that never dies
I knew we would never, ever be blue

And the compatibility when we would *****
All up in those luscious creamy thighs
Shoo-be-doobie-shoobie-doo

Never a time I didn’t know what to do
It’s easy when you live free of mistrust and lies
I knew we would never, ever be blue
Shoo-be-doobie-shoobie-do

I sat at the desk considering Whitman
It was a blond desk
Pressed particle board
A few scratches on the surface
Pencils marking and erasing
Marking and erasing
   And the stain
     Coffee?
    Candy?
    Circumstance had created an ugly table
But the tree had to have been majestic
Surrounded by forest
The occasional squirrel
Grey with a bushy tail
Scampering here and yon
Burying acorns for the coming cold
I couldn’t grasp his worth
So much notoriety
And for what…..drivel
Parchment coated in pig ****
Eaten up by the masses
As if it were caviar
  Delicate row packages
Pulled from the soft underbelly of a salmon
Or grunion
The whiting swam as if in a festival of silver backs
Brought home by the seasons to spawn and die
Forever continuing the cycle of Darwin
    The book began to way as heavy as
       My eyelids
       Placing the trash on the table
          Next to the waste-paper basket
I thought to myself….
Better to start again tomorrow…fresh eyes
Better to see what all the fuss
      Is really about –

thick, cold, fresh, molasses
he answers slowly dripped
from crimson lips
bereft of compassion
as if empathy
were less than a ***** word
more a non-existent concept
both foreign and alien…
movements matching her mouthing
I could only shift weight
from one foot
to the other
as formulations and calculations
whirred just behind cautious eyes
caught off guard by the suddenness
she spoke quickly and clear
with such precise conciseness
I had to blink twice
“it’s a deal,” she stated,
matter-of-factly
elegantly turning away
and floating down the corridor
I thought to myself
what mess
had I entered today –