the process in poetry

keeping one foot in the practical world and
one foot in the world of theory is the only
way to be good at either and it’s also one
of the hardest things to maintain long-term

its one thing to see the world as it truly is
its another to see it as it truly should be
but to be able to see both at once, to measure
the exact distance between the two I imagine
I imagine that’s like being trapped in hell

you gotta love what you’re doing
but you can’t do it for the love
this is the bind that our culture
has us trapped us within, the more
common hell for the more common man

I feel like a boulder teetering
on the edge of some high cliff
not quite falling and yet
not quite standing still
all potential energy
waiting for one more
little push toward
disaster or glory
or both at once

I feel like some phantom of a man
who occasionally has a good idea
but most of the time is just a
very mediocre human being and
if I could sustain those
little moments of grace
I’d be pretty amazing but
they’re so very fleeting
probably a lot of people
feel this way as well
God, I certainly hope
other people feel this
way as I do, like this
oh God I hope so
it would be mighty
lonely to be alone
in this loneliness