How to Write a Poem
Shut off your internal dialogue forgetting all your heroes.
Get up early enough in the morning so that your dreams are still simmering in your consciousness.
Spend some time listening to the sounds around you, gratefully noting all the colors the day offers you in gratitude.
Eat only brown rice with seaweed, mangoes, or almonds (some poets prefer sardines).
Buy a 1/5 of Courvoisier.
Stay away from banks.
Purchase a train ticket to Mexico, minimum 500 miles south.
Disconnect your phone.
Turn off the circuit breaker and work by a blue candle.
Now, write whatever images come to mind in a black and white notebook using a green pen; scribble as fast as you can, imagining yourself on that train to Mexico, digging the scenes presented as you inevitably fly by.
Never go back anywhere anytime (traintracks go one way).
No crossing out (you may run out of ink).
No thinking (here’s where the Courvoisier will help).
Loosen any belts or headbands you’re wearing.
And if none of this works, turn on a baseball game.
2008