Poetry and Prose

Every word ever made has been said,

from ‘What light through yonder window breaks,’

to, ‘Call me Ishmael.’

Every language, time and thought,

wrought by the greatest wordsmiths,

ever taught.

Sentences, structures, word by word.

while artists toiled,

to join them all.

Still, they struggle, and they strive.

To find those phrases,

that proves they are alive.

Rhythm, rhyme, line and time,

a lifetime can be spent

on one, single sentence.

Really, does anyone not wonder what

they struggle, so hard, to achieve.

Only to repeat words that others have already thought.

Individuals, men and women, children too,

spend moments, years and eternities,

working towards a single goal.

It’s part of the human condition.

to achieve,

that something more, to make them listen.

Words, like butterflies, can be trapped.

the paper, the net,

the pen, the pin. *

What journey must a writer take?

To capture that which can’t be caught?

Or better yet, what drives them to act?

*Butterfly collectors use a pin to attach the specimen to the board. Thus, a writer uses a pen to connect words to paper.