The Curse of Low Cholesterol

The thin balding doctor
Brilliant they say
Flush with his degree
From the University of Nevada – Reno
Tut-tuts me about my weight
And runs all of usual tests
Extracts and measures my blood
To confirm that my fatness
Is killing me
But my cholesterol is low
Not high
Too low
He tells me
The good cholesterol
Has nary a toehold
In my system
Diet and exercise
You self-deluded porker
To raise your cholesterol
And so I am stuck either way
High or low
Good or bad
The answer is diet and exercise
And the question is
How do you make the next few years
Of your life
As tedious as possible

Big Heads

The big-headed heard of small children
Tramples past me
Echoing shouts and threats and pleadings
For the small world enders that they see
And that I wish I could recapture
Just to judge if I have grown at all inside
Since the little shocks and horrors of a new world
Tripped over my untied shoelaces
And my unkempt, unpopular, unhappy, unabashed
Misanthropy of a childhood
Divided me slowly from the averages
The means
The medians
And the small comforts
That might have come from fitting in
The terrors and pleasures of children
Each a random sampling of their parent’s failures
Cobbled together and mostly functional
Mostly ready
I am the kid at the back of the line
Happy that no one can push ahead of me now
Happy to look at their backs and be alone
With the thoughts that sound clever in my head
Until the moment they leave my lips
And I realize that my audience
Wants me to fail
Expects me to fail
And gets pissed off
When I succeed despite them
So long herd
Get back to class
Go back to being lied to
And pounded on
And told how happy you should be
Good luck kids
It was great seeing you

Five Poetry Lessons You Can Learn from Star Wars

“That’s no moon. It’s a space station.”

One of the mistakes many beginners make is that they try to emulate someone else’s voice. It is fine to love a certain poet or style, but when it comes to writing poetry, you have to realize that the only voice that will work for you is your own voice. Don’t worry, all of those poets who have influenced you will still be there in the back of your mind when you write, just don’t waste your time wondering how they would write a line. What matters is how you write.

“Into the garbage chute, flyboy.”

One of the great joys of writing poetry is that moment when you have a sudden breakthrough. Your can spend hours sitting around trying to get one poem to work, then all of a sudden inspiration strikes and another, better poem emerges, seemingly without effort. You are going to write a lot of bad poetry in your time, while you are looking for those inspired poems. Sometimes, you’ll even write a great poem without ever feeling inspired. The point is that you have to keep working in order to get to those good poems. Don’t give up just because you feel like you’re surrounded in garbage. Success might be waiting behind the very next door.

“These aren’t the droids you’re looking for.”

Another easy mistake to make is avoiding a topic because it feels too personal, too uninteresting or not “poetic” enough. A well-written poem can be about any subject that matters to you. The important thing is that it does matter to you. Embrace the topics that you think you want to avoid. Challenge yourself to write about anything and everything that has meaning to you.

“I find your lack of faith disturbing.”

Poetry and self-doubt go hand in hand. Don’t dwell on the shortcomings of your poetry. If you are worried that your poetry isn’t good enough, then keep writing and keep studying other poets. Training and experience do matter, even in the realm of poetry. Life is a very long road. Don’t expect to master everything the first time. As long as you keep working and believing, you will keep improving.

“Let go”

Inspiration is a fleeting creature. When you finally get inspired, you need to allow yourself the time and the space to keep writing. You may have had other things planned. The phone may ring. There might be a knock at the door. When you are inspired, you need to ignore all of that, because once the inspiration leaves it may not return again easily. Embrace the inspiration you get and follow it for as long as you can.