Additional Advice for a Young Poet – A Poem by Elisavietta Ritchie

Today, I have the pleasure of sharing  a poem by Elisavietta Ritchie.

Additional Advice for a Young Poet

                      “A writer has nothing to teach and everything                                                                                                                      to learn, at all times.” Albert Camus

1.
Only one paper napkin
for those six empty minutes?
Cover it with a poem.

Wipe your face
on the other side.
Between the splotches: write.

2.
Lose your pen?
Try a pencil. When this
breaks, wears out,

charcoal till you’re black
as the burnt stick
worn to smudge.

Write with ash
on the sea.
Write on grass,

red ink on flames,
blue on the sky,
white on snow.

When all implements
disappear,
use your blood.

Confrontation 2006; Real Toads, Black Buzzard Press, © 2008 Elisavietta Ritchie; Cormorant Beyond the Compost,Cherry Grove Series, WordTech Communications, © 2011 Elisavietta Ritchie; The Broadkill Review, Vol. 7, no.1

Check out more of Elisavietta Ritchie’s work a www.elisavietta.com.