Return to Current Issue Cover Page
Bowl by Tom Romero
"BOWL"
Copyright 2006 by TOM ROMERO

Writing Buddha

A poem by Meg Withers

                    i.

Step fearlessly up
to the bit of the language.
String one word next to one other,
chopping wood, chopping wood again.
Do not forget to bless the air
for its pliable thesaurus of sound.
Poetry sits before you in the blue bowl,
in the angled light on the table at breakfast.

                    ii.

It is the lone object between you
and a particular sort of starvation.
Your need to breathe, and
what staunches the heart's
green, immaculate hunger.
Quick! Now! Write!
Then practice being hungry again . . .

Originally published in Must Be Present to Win, Ghost Road Press, 2006

Copyright 2006 by Meg Withers

divider

Meg WithersMeg writes:
My poems come through me rather than from me, which only gives credence to my belief that we are one (even though I am as dualistic in my actions and thoughts as many of the rest of us). This human failing has never succeeded in convincing me that reality consists only of that which I am currently capable.

Writer/philosopher Meg Withers lives with her surprise love Rich and Ooshi, The Whizzer, and Fred-O, in Northern California. An MFA candidate at San Francisco State, her book of poety Must Be Present to Win is due from Ghost Road Press in June 2006. She is seeking an agent for three books about food and its tendency to connect people. Meg writes poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction, and ascribes to Charles Eame's statement: "Eventually everything is connected." She won an Open Windows 2005 award, an honorable mention from New Millennium Writings, and has or will appear(ed) in: American River Literary Review, The Bohemian, Poetry Now, Nimrod, and others. The author is not waiting for Godot, or anyone else. She can be reached by email at mrwithers@comcast.net.

Return to Poetry index