Not just a thought, not just a weary wish,
But a portion of essence fall, draining
From inside out to divine consciousness.
Desire of will on Another raining.

Not to compel, not to hurt, push or drive,
These storied wants call outward to be heard
By, for and through all who are alive.
Is such rash, full egotism absurd?

A piece of my mind, not unkind dribbles
Like pudding on a paper plate, waiting
For a child to choose the thought and nibble.
By hearing, by thinking, that child changes.

Be good; be kind; find peace; give love; rewind
The awkward moments that led your soft ear
To this gentle page’s useless, baseless lines.
Answers to deep mysteries wait elsewhere.

The stifled voice that calls incessantly
Seeks change but lacks potency to create
Better; it whispers warmly, fervently.
The hearers do not listen; they berate.

In an hour will these lines matter?
Can one human voice begin to alter
The threads of humanity’s set pattern?

seem a fraud

to the quick machinations of the mind

a skeleton

whose bones curl
at the smell of heavily versed
morality

but dead words

often hit the blunt truth

behind many thought’s thick
flesh

Soft words, kind words
Bouncing on my ears.
Wrung out forcefully
Thru training
Of long and tearful years.

Other words, smother words
Neither here nor there.
Filling up vacant days
Like vacuums
Piling polluted airs.

The great thing about this, however, is that I have learned to find inspiration from just about everything around me.  I wrote a poem about chewing gum because I asked my 4 year old daughter what I should write about.  She has an obsession about gum and made her suggestion.

I can’t say that every poem I write is a masterpiece.  There are those that I love more than others.  There are stories that I enjoy more than others, and I don’t always have time to work on the latest chapter of my novel, but I have learned to take nearly any topic or thought and turn it into a poem or a string of sentences that I am willing to share with the public.

Inspiration can be found in any tangible object, or in a strand of conversation.  A song on the radio.  A news broadcast.  The people in our lives – especially friends and family.  All of these make good topics for poetry and stories.  The trick is looking closely enough at the world to care enough about it to write.