This, your tenuous creation
(The delicate process of creative writing)
By Jon Slone
Someone once asked me what it felt like to write...to describe the actual process.
This was my reply in a poem.
Slap something down like a fist-full of mashed potatoes.
Then push it around like you were rearranging furniture.
Stop for a precious moment, step back and gaze upon it, this, your tenuous creation.
Then immediately stow, with everything in you, the urge to play basketball with it!
Look on with surgical eyes. But save one glance full of ripe aggrandizement.
Cut the cord and walk away.
Several good and restful hours later, come home to your prose.
Drink-in slowly, the fetching bits.
Notice the horrid lumps straight away!
Make haste to operate yet again!
More slaps!
Reconfigure those ink-stained end-tables!
Cut.
Draw lines through.
Drop in.
Snip.
Slash.
Couch together.
Dab the ink.
Take a drink.
Chase new ideas with new sneakers!
Quill over ink pool
Take the plunge!
Scissors.
Tape.
Scalpel.
Sponge!.
Must stop the bleeding!
Castigate!
Contemplate.
Confabulate.
Inoculate…
Rubbish and genius, shoulder to shoulder but for a fleeting moment!
Rinse and repeat for what seems like forever!
This, your tenuous creation.
Peace & a Pretzel!
