James Kelley Poet Free verse

Surgery

Poetry is not rhyming.
It's not about form or 
using gold laden words.
Poetry is cutting yourself 
into pieces,
tiny little scraps of field notes,
and crawling back inside
the womb to find clarity;
to find out just how and
why you were put together.
You have to do it slowly,
accept the pain of each
tender slice and breathe
in a gentle rush.
Do not worry about keeping
organized, forget where you
place everything. In fact,
cast them as far away as 
possible. You’ll want
to discover every nuance
of your history as if it were
someone else’s.
This will help with perspective.
You’ll be able to see things 
as if they were in real time,
    as if you were reading them
                                           in a book that you didn’t know you were writing.
Have an open mind,
you might not really know 
your star character.
You might not even like them
at first, but you will know 
why they are in the place
they are in and you’ll have 
something to say about it.
-James Kelley 2013, All rights reserved.

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