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By Laura Hershey

Don’t be brilliant.
Don’t use words for their own sake, or to show
how clever you are,
how thoroughly you have subjugated them
to your will, the words.


Don’t try to write a poem
as good as your favorite poet.
Don’t even try to write
a good poem.


Just peel back the folds over your heart
and shine into it
the strongest light that streams
from your eyes, or somewhere else.


Whatever begins bubbling forth from there,
whatever sound or smell or color
swells up, makes your throat
fill with unsaid tears,


whatever threatens to ignite your hair, your eyelashes,
if you get too close—


write that.
Suck it in and quickly
shape it with your tongue
before you grow too afraid of it
and it gets away.


Don’t think about
writing a good poem, or a great poem,
or the poem to end all poems.


Write the poem,
you need to hear;
write the poem you need.


Laura Hershey, "How to Write a Poem" from Laura Hershey: On the Life & Work of an American Master. Copyright © 2019 by Laura Hershey.  Reprinted by permission of The Estate of Laura Hershey.

Source: Laura Hershey: On the Life & Work of an American Master (Unsung Masters Series, 2019)

  • Activities
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Poet Bio

Laura Hershey
Poet, activist, and author Laura Hershey earned her BA from Colorado College, MFA from Antioch University, and was awarded an honorary doctorate from Colorado College. Recognized as a leader in the movement for disability rights, Hershey was the author of Survival Strategies for Going Abroad: A Guide for People with Disabilities. After Hershey’s death following an unexpected illness in 2010, her partner Robin Stephens told the Denver Post, “She was a genius who lived with disability and lived well.” See More By This Poet

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