Arlene Corwin writes

Friend Thesaurus

The writer’s friend, 

A blend of possibilities and inspiration.

Thesaurus, dictionary -

Whomsoever you may be.

You may be shy,

Outwardly 

          unable to express but haltingly,

Verbally restricted or constricted.

Stumbling, jumbling up idea and flow,

Noticing that when you sit

The things you know and feel ‘in here’

Become immediately clear

And you can write with style,

All the while the face a smile;

A ‘freebee’* as an old friend used to call it.

I call it ability.

You may be face-blind, absent-minded,

Abstracted, scatterbrained,

But when you’ve paper, pen you’re won-

                                                              derful!

Published, praised, commended,

Held in high regard.

You can create!

For goodness sake, you write!

You can bring to life a whole new world

Without having to communicate,

Or state illuminations now unfurled

Which formerly were coiled, twirling round inside that brain.

You’re articulate on this new, wholly other plane.

If you’ve nothing much to say -

Well, that’s a different story.

But if you’ve got the bent to write day, night or dawn,

Put it down!  

You’ll find you’ve not had so much fun

Since  your day one when eight or so,

You wrote, though slowly

Putting youthful concepts into poetry.

Use your friends!

They’re there to end 

Those agonies

Inhibiting potentialities.

*freebee; something you get for nothing.  The ‘old friend’ was Teddy Charles, well known jazz vibraphonist.