The first few days of retirement have been a writer’s wasteland. Then I found a saved draft of Steve Shoemaker’s verse. It was as though it was waiting for just this time. Maybe tomorrow I’ll feel like throwing something away.

Write something, anything

(Was it Malcolm Muggeridge who said if
you can’t write something good, write something
bad that you can throw away.)
…
How do I know what I think till I see what I say?
…
Can ideas be feelings or colors or moods,
or must letters and spaces reveal the mind?
…
Type on an iPhone, computer or pad:
words, sentence, phrases–the good and the bad.
…
Drivel, insight, cliche, Truth–
symbol, allegory, tall-tale, lie;
future, memory, made-of-whole-cloth,
fiction, non-fiction, poetry.
…
Muses, Graces all have wings–they flit and fly away.

– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL