Summer Solstice Splendid Wake Poetry Pop-Up

Additional Advice for a Young Poet

by Elisavietta Ritchie                   

      “A writer has nothing to teach and everything to learn, at all times.” --Albert Camus

1.

Only one paper napkin

for those six empty minutes?

Cover it with a poem.

Wipe your face

on the other side.

Between the splotches: write.

2.

Lose your pen?

Try a pencil. When this

breaks, wears out,

charcoal till you're black

as the burnt stick

worn to smudge.

Write with ash

on the sea.

Write on grass,

red ink on flames,

blue on the sky,

white on snow.

When all implements

disappear,

use your blood.

This poem previously appeared: Confrontation 2006; Real Toads, Black Buzzard Press, © 2008 Elisavietta Ritchie; Cormorant Beyond the Compost, Cherry Grove Collections, WordTech Communications, © 2011 Elisavietta Ritchie; The Broadkill Review, Vol. 7, no.1; , The Second Genesis: An Anthology of Contemporary World Poetry, compiled and edited by Anuraag Sharma.

Elisavietta Ritchie is president emeritus for both poetry and fiction divisions, Washington Writers’ Publishing House. Her work has appeared in numerous publications and she is the author of over a dozen books, most recently Harbingers! Learn more at www.elisaviettaritchie.com

;