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 poetry by Carolyn Wilker 

https://www.carolynwilker.ca/books/

 

 




 

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