How to find one

Sometimes, you have to let the poem write you.

Yesterday
I went out looking 
for a poem.  I searched 
all the right places
and this is what I found.

At the beach, blue
sky was falling 
onto water endlessly, 
far off at the edge of sight
where a ship sat, 
hull down behind horizon
coyly, hiding its form.

Waves from that impact
washed in, briefly lifting
an entirely disinterested whale –
unconnected to any poem –
intent on its own mission,
sailing on,
Antarctic bound.

Back on the streets
driving around, chasing words
they jumbled past me
in glimpses, fractured by
traffic, clattered by every
bump beneath the wheels
like gravel then 
scattered like wild birds,
ascending.

In the end I gave up, 
came home, fell
into bed with my lover, 
slept all night long
and woke, went walking
to this café in the morning
and found the poem 
already here,
with a drink, 
sitting,
waiting patiently,
laughing….

David