Betty Slade
My first twenty years writing,
I avoided poetry like poison ivy.
Most poems I read, I had no idea
what the poet was writing about.
I wanted my writing to be understood,
not some mysterious code. But sometimes
unsolicited poems popped out.
I shoved them in an envelope marked,
Poems: finished and unfinished.
One day at an artists and writers retreat,
the director, Betty Slade, asked me to read.
Working on a novel at the time,
I read a couple of my poems,
since they were short. The attendees’
enthusiastic response surprised me.
Betty told me I should put my poems in a book.
So I took out the big old envelope
and finished and revised them.
From that experience, I learned
how to write poetry without waiting
for them to materialize from strong emotion.
Betty lit the match causing a poetic explosion.
