August 16, 2017 Poetic Asides Introduction

Meeting of Essayist and Poet

I walked into a crowded room of writers

busily buying bunches of books from other writers.

Bumping me this way and that as they swished past,

and I said, “I feel like a rock in a river.”

I made my way across the aisle

where a lady looked at me and asked,

“Are you a poet?” “Yes,” I answered. “Why?”

“I could tell by what you said.”

“How would you say it?” I asked.

“I’m in the way,” she answered.

I said, “You must write nonfiction.”

She nodded. We laughed a writerly laugh.