More poetry

A former student (and current teacher) just sent this to me. Thought you might enjoy it.

“Do You Have Any Advice For Those of Us Just Starting Out?"
by Ron Koertge

Give up sitting dutifully at your desk.
Leave your house or apartment. Go out into the world.

It's all right to carry a notebook but a cheap one is best,
with pages the color of weak tea
and on the front a kitten or a space ship.

Avoid any enclosed space
where more than three people are wearing turtlenecks.
Beware any snow-covered chalet
with deer tracks across the muffled tennis courts.

Not surprisingly, libraries are a good place to write.
And the perfect place in a library
is near an aisle where a child a year or two old is playing
as his mother browses the ranks of the dead.

Often he will pull books from the bottom shelf.
The title, the author's name, the brooding photo on the flap
mean nothing.
Red book on black, gray book on brown, he builds a tower.
And the higher it gets, the wider he grins.

You who asked for advice, listen:
When the tower falls, be like that child.
Laugh so loud everybody in the world frowns and says, "Shhhh."

Then start again.

from Fever, 2006 Red Hen Press