Untitled (Monday Poem)

by Karla Kuskin


Where do you get the idea for a poem?
Does it shake you awake?
Do you dream it asleep
or into your tiny tin head does it creep
and pop from your pen
when you are not aware
or leap from your pocket
or fall from your hair
or is it just silently
suddenly
there?
In a beat
in a breath
in a pause
in a cry
one unblinking eye
that stares from the dark
that is deep in your head
demanding attention
until it is written
until it is rotten
until it is anything else but forgotten
until it is read.


from Moon, Have You Met My Mother? The collected poems of Karla Kuskin, illustrated by Sergio Ruzzier, 2003, HarperCollins