Sometimes

Sometimes
Christopher Bogart

Sometimes poems are not easy to write.
They sometimes seem like mental
Fight. Well, maybe not fight.
Maybe struggle, where paucity and plenty
Battle for attention. It is retention
Of sight and sound, of memories near and far,
That spar in the mind for position
Where rhythm and rhyme compete for primacy,
For importance, for position in the pecking order
To the top of the list
Of what I want to say.

My mind strays past the unimportance of facts
To the import of method, of message, of meaning.

What do I write about?

I want to say something, sometimes,
That will light the mind with images,
Sometimes, that will enlighten the soul with whole truth,
Or sometimes
I’m at a loss for what to say.
I just know I must say it.
I must feel it.
I must believe it.

Sometimes,
I just must write.