Poem

“Do You Have Any Advice For Those of Us Just Starting Out?"
Ron Koertge

Give up sitting dutifully at your desk. Leaveyour house or apartment. Go out into the world.
It's all right to carry a notebook but a cheapone is best, with pages the color of weak teaand on the front a kitten or a space ship.
Avoid any enclosed space where more thanthree people are wearing turtlenecks. Bewareany snow-covered chalet with deer tracksacross the muffled tennis courts.
Not surprisingly, libraries are a good place to write.And the perfect place in a library is near an aislewhere a child a year or two old is playing as hismother browses the ranks of the dead.
Often he will pull books from the bottom shelf.The title, the author's name, the brooding photoon the flap mean nothing. Red book on black, graybook on brown, he builds a tower. And the higherit gets, the wider he grins.
You who asked for advice, listen: When the towerfalls, be like that child. Laugh so loud everybodyin the world frowns and says, "Shhhh."
Then start again.