"Breathing Poetry" by John C. Mannone, Frequent Contributor

Breathing Poetry 

Fill your paper

with the breathings

of your heart.

—William Wordsworth

 

She said she’s hoping

to learn how to write

poetry by osmosis.

I said conjure the words

within your open mind

from its convolutions

and recesses to the tips

of your lips, then deeply,

deeply breathe them in

through your skin until 
your pen can feel its

quiver in the inkwell

of your heart. Slowly

exhale those words

on paper as if grisaille.

Color every stroke. Do

not miss the dotted i’s

and swiftly crossed t’s. 
When all those words

are read, then breathe

them in again—the ink

—for another dose of air.

--John C. Mannone

Poet’s Notes: Many of the ars poetica poems show the frustration of writing or even analyzing a poem (see Billy Collins’ poem, “Introduction to Poetry”). Even Robert Frost said a poem is what’s lost in the translation. So here’s a different type—one that lifts up the process. Hopefully it will inspire you to write instead of providing reasons not to.