That Insistent Emptiness..... Poem by RIC BASTASA

to become a writer
we must
keep on writing

and having written
much
from womb to tomb
we deserve that
title
as writers

we may not be good
at all
about this stuff
but just the same
because we write we
are writers then

and we are better read
than being heard
and we are definite about
just being read
even if not being loved.

we did not invent ourselves
with such a talent
we shaped it like mashed
mud, gripped and held and
caressed to form and create
that jar of earth

which we place under
the sky
and when it rains
can hold so much water
and when it dries
can hold so much air
and space and that
insistent emptiness.