Conception of Verse

Poetry is hiding secrets in
complicated diction. Between the lips and
tongues of foreigners.

To bring into existence:
To create with

The flesh,
and blood,
and semen,
and love

of someone’s imagination.

Made in between sheets of mattresses, or eyelids.
Under grains of sand, or in rabbit holes.

No money in poetry—
That’s what sets the poet free.1

Dedicated to wood, worms, hands, and toes
or something less tangible (like ghosts).

Art appears to evolve
from a source that is deep in the soul
It may be somewhat heretical to
describe the creative act in analytical terms

Ask Mr. Scientist,
words will feel less fluid,
like oil spills in salt water

he utters “mental activity
that comes in

Fill cups with:
and persuasion

Ideas are born and grow like infants.
Bearing from the
uterus, or unintentional memories.
The sensation of filling lungs
for the first time, bring tears
like first draft criticism.

Discovering the creative
begins at our own birth
life influences how
we perceive the world

Schools tell us we
need to be whole brained.
Puzzle pieces push
together the logical parts, and the random ones.

Most of us have a preference
Most of us—creating is:

Extracting from the subconscious
from beneath everyday life, an undercurrent
that runs all we do in waking.

Slip into a place
where thoughts come to you like
promises. Unexpected and exciting.
Grown like planted gold. Swim
freely until caught between your teeth.

Or catch them like Ruth Stone.
in rural Virginia
work in the fields
feel and hear a poem coming
let it shake the earth

and run like hell

hold it between fingertips
or let it wander to another poet.
Because writing poems about writing poems
is like rolling bales of hay in Texas.2

But Picasso says
all you need is practice.

(I guess poets are always taking the weather so personally.
always sticking their emotions in things that have no emotions.3)

Or to create we could be
facilitated by an altered thinking processing
whether from sleep, insanity, alcohol use.

Liquid reduced ability
focus on some things and ignore others
happens to benefit creative problem solving

Swallow ability to think differently.
Feel the burn in your throat of words
dancing on paper, and letters kissing
with lost ambitions and dizzy headaches.

Some say there’s a dark side to creativity
that we are all madmen.
More likely to think differently
is more likely to engage in unethical behavior.
We are dishonest, and morally flexible.
But if my morals can touch their toes,
than mine transcend theirs.
Because mine are a product of ordinary cognitive processes
(like theirs)
but mine are influenced and more beautiful.

And my solutions are infinite.

In order to create you must find inspiration
dig it up in grave yards, or look under your finger nails.

My advice for you is:
Be loved by an artist because then you’ll live forever.

Some faint, recollection of hand holding,
and wishing on flower petals, “he loves me,
he loves me not”.

Allison Rainsby, Age 16, Grade 11, Packer Collegiate Institute, Silver Key

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