The Poet’s Nightmare —New Murfin Verse

Process, you ask.  How do you create a poem?  Here’s one way.  Pathetic when you think about it.

The Poet’s Nightmare 

I wake up in a drenching sweat                  

            distraught

            for want of a word     

            for a douche bag.

No, not some low life idiot,   

            the thing

            that hung once

            in the bathroom

            that smelled of lavender

            where stockings dripped

            from the shower rod

            and steam misted

            the pink flamingo decals

            on the mirror.

I need the word that will not come

            with consuming urgency.

It has a place in a line of verse

            spelling itself out

            in hand carved wooden

            Gothic print blocks

            on old linen paper.

A hundred times it seems

            that it is almost there

            ready to fall into

            its urgent place.

And vanishes.

—Patrick Murfin

January 22, 2015

3:43 am