! A Love Poem To A Poem Poem by Michael Shepherd

for there’s what you planned to write about,
and what you find yourself
writing about; perhaps
find yourself, while writing about..

and there’s the poem itself; did you
consult it about what
its plans were? and when
it’s got itself written,
gone where it wanted to,
said what it wanted to say,
become what it wanted to become,
do you really know
what it’s finally and really about?

is it telling you more about
you than you knew yourself?
is the poem writing you?

did we, as with the unicorn,
feel the unspoken need for it,
and it became?

in some other world,
did two grains of dust change places?
did a new sort of light
shine on a new sort of place
in some new sort of time?

poems are like cats:
we think we own them;
they allow us certain rights,
but they own us.

this is a love poem
to a poem