Prometheanne: Teaser Poem #1

(My next poetry collection, Prometheanne: Dead Fires and Lifeblood, is coming out shortly after Thanksgiving! I’ll share a poem a day until the book drops, along with notes about the inspiraton behind each one. You may link to this post anywhere you like, but do not share my work without proper attribution, please!)

maybe my favorite song
still rests quietly
in the firm hollow belly of a scarred old guitar,
words stretched like sinews along bone
or piled up in clever knowing hands,
chord-weavings swelling into melody,
illumined soon, strange and holy
in swift borrowed breaths ’til it flies,
itself its own coronation, full-throated and golden,
that captured flash and burn
staining my ears beautiful, line by line.

This poem was inspired by Gary Lightbody, the talented lead singer/songwriter of Snow Patrol. I was thinking about how it must be more difficult to write [at least sometimes] knowing you already have a hungry audience with expectations, than it is for someone like me, with barely any audience at all — I am freer to write for myself; it takes far less courage for me.

He will not see this, of course, but it was a gentle shoulder pat for when the words just don’t want to come out or only spill tangled, or when that self-doubt creeps in as it does for us all — a small gesture of complete faith in his gift, in all of our gifts, really. My all-time favorite song (or poem, or book) may not even have been written yet…and that is such a beautiful possibility! Here’s to all of life’s possibilities.