May I See Your Written Work

FEEL MAY I SEE YOUR WRITTEN WORK?

POETRY

Samantha Williams St. Augustine, Fla. Graphic Design major, Creative Writing minor

“May I read your written work?” is not so simple a question when you consider how it’s born.

My poems are in my blood, flowing through my body, organic and free.

The process is not that of a typist, thought-hand-pen-paper, but rather, a writer.

My pen is my knife. I stab repeatedly into skin, slicing away the thin membrane between poet and poem, writer and work, instrument and words.

It begins with difficulty, inexperienced fingers sticking and shivering throughout, but soon, I loosen, and glide with ease. Blood spatters, pours, cascades onto pale, unblemished paper. And with that, the innocence is ruined.

Hurdles overcome, I peel away my layers piece by piece, bit by bit, discovering as I go that skin forms stanza, veins become rhymes, life-giving blood to life-giving lines.

So you see –

“May I read your written work?” is not so simple a question when you consider how it’s born.