a writer tries valiantly
to transform his insides
into an intricate beautiful painting
and publish himself inside-out
for all the world to see
—Terri Guillemets
a writer tries valiantly
to transform his insides
into an intricate beautiful painting
and publish himself inside-out
for all the world to see
—Terri Guillemets
I am searching for my feelings
through shelves of dusty books
can’t help but feel I’ve left them
in some forgotten ancient nooks
as if an author long before me
captured my emotions in his day
and saved them in fine poetry
for future me to find someway
—Terri Guillemets
I wanted to write
a book of poetry
but it’s already written;
those poems —
red, throbbing, beating —
are just trying to
make their way
to the paper
—Terri Guillemets
I am a poet, — though
I’ve yet to write a poem —
when my soul blossoms
and my mind goes free
when I finally let go of
the suffocating shroud
o’er the wildness of me
my beauty will spill out
the ink will overflow and
finally I’ll be able to see
through a sapphire lens
into the heart of infinity
I know I am a poet —
someday — I will be
but the earth hasn’t
shattered inside me yet
I have still only yet got
the seeds of the words
within me; I am learning
and yearning and earning
and living my way toward
being born into harvest
There’s a meteor shower
inside my brain —
stars shooting down
every bright idea
words burning out
before inking the page —
broken-hearted dementia
sleepless engulfing fog —
search and rescue crews
report every line gone
—Terri Guillemets
I eat bad poetry like a goat — and
eat good poetry like a gourmand.
—Terri Guillemets
Poetic words flow much better in pleasant climes—
Springtime and autumn, more friendly for rhymes
Winter’s good too, we self-reflect well in cold times
But blazing summer melts words & numbs minds!
—Terri Guillemets
3 a.m. ink is pure and unfiltered —
specks of truth glimmer in candlelight
—Terri Guillemets
Love letter: an inky heartprint.
—Terri Guillemets
Who traipsed over
the typewriter keys
and left wordprints
in black & red ribbon?
—Terri Guillemets
awareness, audacity, awe
authenticity, acumen, angels
coffee, curiosity, cats
dreams, decision, desire, direction, devils
erasers, endurance, experiments
fearlessness, flexibility
grit, guts, goals
honesty, hyperbole, hunger
ink, ingenuity, insanity, insomnia, insecurity
intention, intellect, insight, intuition
purpose, pain, passion, perspective, personality
rawness, reverie, reference
soul, style, spunk, solitude, silence
substance, stubbornness, struggle, sweat
sagacity, sense, skepticism
typewriter, tea, time
wit, wisdom, what-ifs
wistfulness, window, wings
—Terri Guillemets
i typed my tea
and drank my words
brewed every thought
ink whistled in the kettle
—Terri Guillemets
CONTEMPORARY POETRY —
paying at the tollbooth with pretty words
then swimming naked under the bridge
—Terri Guillemets
poets swing too high
until the chain kinks
and snaps
the
fall
is
poetry
—Terri Guillemets