“Be patient, listen quietly, the writing will come. The voice of
the writing will tell you what to do.” — Donald M. Murray,
America’s writing teacher. I came across a poem my son Nathanael
wrote 20 years ago, a month after he turned eleven. A few weeks
into the school year, his Grade Six teacher at Maharishi School
gave the students a writing assignment. Their homework was to
write a poem for class the next day. The pressure was on. I
don’t recall much of the details, but I do remember Nathanael
saying he had a problem with this. We discussed it. He felt
strongly that you couldn’t force a poem into existence; it had
to come naturally, from inspiration. I agreed and suggested he
express that idea somehow in his poem. He was determined to send
his teacher a message. What he wrote blew me away. He was
inspired! A poem comes naturally, Not forced, not assigned, not
sought for. A poem should be inspired, Not under pressure,
surely not, for, A poem is spontaneous, creative. How? It is the
nature of the poem to slip