Ars Poetica

by Linda Pastan

1. THE MUSE

You may catch

a butterfly

in a net

if you are swift enough

or if you keep

perfectly still

perhaps it will land

on your shoulder.

Often

it is just

a moth.

2. WRITING

In the battle

between the typewriter

and the blank page

a certain rhythm evolves,

not unlike the hoofbeats

of a horse groomed for war

who would rather be

head down, grazing.

3. REJECTION SLIP

Darling, though you know

I admire your many

fine qualities

you don’t fill all my needs

just now, and besides

there’s a backlog

waiting to fit

in my bed.

4. REVISION

The tree has been green

all summer, but now

it tries red . . . copper . . .

even gold. Soon

leaf after leaf

will be discarded,

there will be nothing

but bare tree, soon

it will be almost time

to start over again.

5. ARS POETICA

Escape from the poem

by bus, by streetcar—

any way you can,

dragging a suitcase

tied together with twine

in which you’ve stuffed

all your singular belongings.

Leave behind

a room

washed by sun

or moonlight.

There should be a chair

on which you’ve draped a coat

that will fit anyone.

From Carnival Evening: New and Selected Poems 1968–1998, New York: W. W. Norton, 1998, pages 208–209. The “Muse” stanza has a similar feel to my “Seventeen Ways of Looking at Haiku,” and the “Rejection Slip” stanza reminds me of Francesca Bell’s “I Long to Hold the Poetry Editor’s Penis in My Hand.” In addition, see also Linda Pastan’s “Ars Poetica” (for Billy Collins).