All My Own Work... Poem by Denis Martindale

The poet suddenly realised
That a brand new poem was on its way.
It's a writer's thing,
The prompting of an unborn babe,
Springing forth from who knows where?

And so the poet looked for pen and paper
And began with the title that just happened
Without being puzzled over.
It just happened.

So the first line was a phrase
That was describing something that he saw in his imagination.
It just felt right.
The first verse was just a basic verse,
No fancy frills, just words.

But that second verse was a lulu, it was really special.
The poet was absolutely thrilled,
But that third verse wouldn't fit properly…
It didn't seem as if it wanted to join in at all.
He hated crossing out anything, but this time,
That verse just had to go…

He was somewhat annoyed with himself.
He had lost momentum,
He thought he was on a roll, then he frowned.

Suddenly, he was a bit amazed at this,
But he decided to pray. He hadn't prayed in years.
He asked God to help him with this poem.
It felt kind of important and he wanted expert help,
So why not pray?

Well, after that little prayer, everything changed,
The words were pulsating with power, talk about special.
At last, the editing stage was at hand.
He checked every word, phrase, sentence, line, verse
And finally, finally it was done and it was perfect!

Then underneath the final version, he wrote,

Poem by Denis Martindale.

Then he smiled.
But just as suddenly,
The piece of paper disappeared between his hands.
It vanished and he was gobsmacked!
Then he heard a voice,
‘NEXT TIME, INCLUDE ME IN!
I HELPED YOU WRITE THAT BEAUTIFUL POEM! '

So there he was, shocked, befuddled and bewildered
Because he had never known any poets state
That any poem was by them AND GOD!
He'd never seen that in any poetry anthology or magazine,
Or on TV or radio.
It just wasn't done…
But maybe it should be…



Denis Martindale (AND YOU KNOW WHO!) August 2017.