Ars Poetica (Excerpt from “Telling the Gospel Truth”)

The next time a student asks

      how to become a writer, I will say:

          Sit in a white room

                        without paper

                  and think of the poacher

                                  who shot the wing off the bald eagle.

                                Who must have seen

                                                          he wrecked his trophy

                        and, disgusted,

            did not offer it

                                                  a second bullet

                                            but thrashed off deeper into the forest

  wearing his expensive

                  forest-colored clothes.

Then            think of the man from the wild bird sanctuary

                                                      who found the eagle,

                                                        sutured its ragged wingstub,

                                                          fed the awkward hopping thing

                                                                                      for years.

                                          And, before it died, harnessed it

                                                  in a hang glider and took it to the mountain

so one last time

              its hollow bones could float,

so one last time

its eyes could scour the forest floor from hunter’s height,

so one last time

                  its talons could tear the gauzy cloak of sky,

                                        flying in the face

                                                                  of God,

that one last time.

                      Think of the poacher, think of the birder.

          Alternate,

shortening the intervals.

Don’t forget to breathe.

When you can hold both of these men

in the palm of your mind

                                  at the same time—

                                                          Love,

                                                                      come find me

                                                                                  and teach me.