muse

1. gaze thoughtfully at.
2. a person or personified force who is the source of inspiration for a creative artist.

i yearn to make poetry of everyone.
to transform the most mundane
into an experience of staggering beauty.
shift my gaze, a slow tilt,
until it catches the perfect way.
the way that no one else has.

the sky never seems to end.
a seamless fabric encompassing
the smooth curves of the world.
i see the birds flying across,
offering their daily routine
wrapped in verse and metaphor
at the altar of poetry.

sometimes, writing feels like a challenge,
finding fertile, unexplored soil
in lands that have been tilled
a dozen times over.
an unfolding flower,
the zig-zag pattern of an intoxicated bee,
a bright summer afternoon:
three-panel narrative.

other days, it is a blessing.
whole poems fall out of my fingers
like ripe fruit,
golden yellow mangoes
and thick bunches of grapes,
a picture of unbridled prosperity,
with sweet essence just under their skin.

the unpalatable takes on
a flattering hue under the soft light.
that which was a little too raw
for the ones with a weak stomach
dressing itself in artfully
designed garbs.
poetry becoming a weapon,
slow acting, deadly accurate,
spreading with a singular purpose.

i call on calliope,
beg to have the secrets of epics
etched in the soft grooves of my fingers.
seek out her sisters on days
when inspiration, that cheeky runt,
evades every grasp of my desperate mind.
comb through the world around me
for corners unnoticed.
traveling past and future,
seeking the right time that
brings forth creation,
much like childbirth in its
gasping, painful glory.

for those that were told
that they can never be muses,
that there is no beauty to be found
in their twisted, labyrinthine depths,
perhaps the right artist's eye
has not found them yet.
for nature inspires different emotions
in each heart,
some seeing the quiet calm,
others, the brewing storm.