334 Poem by RIC BASTASA

'Poetry has a great digestive system and can consume and recycle almost anything. It's the poet's persona that gives meaning to the process. The first important act of the imagination is to create the person who will write the poems. And that's not the end of it. We have to invent and reinvent who we are until we arrive at the self we can bear to live with and die with. Art demands of the artist the capacity for self-renewal. Without it, art withers. And so does the life.'
- STANLEY KUNITZ

what you were is not enough.
what you are is not enought either.
what you will be will always not suffice.

if you are a sigh
turn yourself into a word
if you are a word
reinvent reconvert
recycle
be not just a word
be a phrase
be this sentence
be this paragraph
be this short story
be this novel
be this universal prayer
of marvel

do not just be a nail but be a hammer
do not just be snail but be sparrow

what if you are nothing at all at the end?
then be the perfection of nothing
just be the best
of this reinventing