Got writer's block? Bring Here An Elixir for the Muse!

Bring Here An Elixir For The Muse


Start with alcohol,
swirled slowly in the glass,
swallowed deeply, carefully,
until overwhelming numbness
envelops thoughtless solitude.

Add heartbreak, loss, memories cascading
like a telephone ringing in a cluttered room,
unfindable amidst yesterday's laundry
and tomorrow's unpacked suitcase.

The blank page returns the writer's bleary glare,
taunting?-
the constellation of squiggly lines,
stacks of triangles and stick cats
the writer has drawn, comprise no words,
no rhyme.
The blank page wins again.

Then in the rough drafts of gibberish scribblings,
stacks of triangles and stick cats
an image forms.
The muse, trembling with fevered dementia,
prostrate in a medicine man's cave,
buried beneath furs and enclouded
in purple herbal smoke
rises and casts a shadow from the dimly flickering fire
and moans through parched lips,
"In the hurricane of life,
in the depths of memory,
light, blackness,
heartbreak, bliss,
victory and loss all are one."

Heartbreak can only besiege
those who have known bliss;
and victory can only be possessed
by those who have endured loss.
The writer at a loss for words
can return from the blank page.


KB