TO WRITE A POEM by Alice Maldonado Gallardo

Someone asked me about how to write poetry...

I decided to try to explain it by writing this poem.

To Write a Poem

by Alice Maldonado

Familiarize with Death.

Retrace its path,

smell its roses

full of thorns.

Keep it close

to your heart.

It makes you

feel alive.

Familiarize with intense,

agonizing Love,

the kind your Mother

warned you about.

Write all night

with the dim light 

of an old lamp.

Next to a window,

so you can

look up

at the lonely stars,

then look down

at the humid busy ground.

Write alone.

Or surrounded

by people.

It will not matter

because when the muse

captures you,

you are the fly

trapped

in the eternal,

glittering spiderweb.

You need to be willing

to drown

in your own sorrows.

Then come up for air

if only for a minute

to write another verse.

You need to learn

how to breathe Beauty.

Inhale and exhale.

Feel the soft air

caress your skin,

the rain purify you,

and the storms

violently free

your hair wild.

Learn how to knit

the clouds in a blanket

and find

the center of the universe

in the flame

of a candle.

Medicate with words.

Close your eyes

and read your soul.

Then let it

reach out.

Let it burn

with the Sun.

Photography by Elizabeth Gibb

Alice Maldonado Gallardo: I was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico in 1966, but at the age of 14 moved with my family to Massachusetts. I studied Latin American Studies at Mount Holyoke College where I was a Frances Perkins Scholar. After graduation I attended Loyola Law School but withdrew to pursue other interests. I worked as Assistant Editor and later as Web and Promotion Manager at the University of Massachusetts Press. I have also worked as a real estate appraiser, translator, secretary, substitute teacher, small business owner and web developer. I live with my teenage son in Amherst, Massachusetts. Three of my poems have been published in an online journal: The Elephant Journal. You can connect with me on Facebook here. 

~If you are interested in seeing your poetry appear in this blog, or submitting a poem by a woman that has inspired you, please click here for submission guidelines. I greatly look forward to hearing from you!~