The Poetry Lesson/ poem by Jocosa Wade

The Poetry Lesson

yesterday

I took myself to the office, i.e. Barnes & Noble
bought a few books. Read. Drank cappuccino. Ate a
chocolate croissant, and wrote the beginning of a 
different poem. This is how it works

today

They no longer arrive fully formed out of an
emotional wellspring, or by the hand of God
after purging secrets in the confessional, or
because I was born with an innate

talent

I don’t have Good Bones, although I’ve never
broken one. The woods offer many paths for
meditation but lichen on a rock has never
whispered to me about the meaning of

life

that was thrust upon me without a formal 
invitation, and comes with a daily option of
pass or play, and a rollercoaster of obstacles,
peppered with just enough victories to make 
you believe living isn’t

hard

work— like this poem that presented itself
one word at a time over three days, thanks to
twelve double-sided pages, four pots of coffee,
three ink cartridges, and no deux ex machina Big

Magic

/////

Jocosa Wade is a recovering actress turned writer living in New York’s Hudson Valley. She holds an MFA in Performance from the University of New Orleans. Her one-act Beating the Odds was first produced as part of the Washington D.C. Theatre Festival and later at Mill Mountain Theatre in Roanoke, Virginia. Her creative non-fiction has appeared in Sky Island Journal. She recharges her creativity with poetry, long walks in the shadow of the Shawangunk Ridge and making the best baklava ever.