Like a Potter
When my friend Valda was doing pottery, describing how to make the work strong, I pondered what she said. I thought of us (writers and poets) like potters, working with our words, massaging where the expression was weak, where the meaning wasn’t as strong, to make it stand on its own, strong and beautiful. Here's the poem that came from it (published by Tower Poetry): Poet Potter Words are jumbled cells of clay in the potter's open hand They gather with the force of a wheel propelled by the potter's feet The wheel spins round and round mere clay in the potter's hands mere words in the poet's mind unfocused the neck wobbles and collapses sinks to the bottom The potter's focus and mindful maneuvering remodel the clay Words arrange themselves into solid bottom, sides and neck, till the finished piece is ready for the fire of the editor's kiln ©Carolyn R. Wilker Also contained in Travelling Light , a collection of light-hearted free verse poet