Her instructions make it seem easy
so much easier than Wendell’s

But maybe because his instructions
are how to be a poet

While Rosemerry’s are more exact
how to do the thing
how to write the poem
how to put the feelings together
with the frantic flight of the hummingbird on the feeder
by the window

Because women don’t always have
the luxury

of theory
of pondering the deeper meaning
of becoming before the doing
We become in the doing

We don’t always have the privilege
of sitting still and waiting
for time to join eternity
unless it will happen in the carpool line
amidst the car fumes
and chattering children
the doing is in the living

Because while we are trying to become mothers
the baby still needs to eat
and no amount of reading
of listening
of sitting still
will stop the baby from crying

We learn in the doing
We see what needs to be done
and jump in
and do
and wonder what it would be like to
have five minutes
to be irresponsible
to make a poem that doesn’t disturb the silence
that slips into being

as opposed
to a poem born in the roar
of the vacuum
and the washing machine
and the music of Sesame Street

the becoming is in the doing
the doing is in the living

(inspired by Wendell Berry and Rosemerrry Wahtola Trommer)