A bold beginning.
Choose a daunting, esoteric form.
Fidget. Grunt. Hedge.
Instead: an easy form.
Feel fallow.
Encounter doubts.
Capitulate.
Begin again.

Alternate approach.
Brainstorm.
Consult the Dictionary. Dream.
Exercise the fingers in freewriting. Find
Ghosts hovering in jetties off Key Largo,
Land mines nestled in opalescent pools of
Quick raven sand///
Reason says, "Quick raven sand?"
Prosody parries, "A simile: the sand as
Slippery as ... as Death's black bird." ///:: Ah,
The true topic uncovered:
The ultimate unknown, the vastest winter:
X (a kiss? A choice? A cross?)—
Yes, youngling, your zazen's accomplished.

Again: begin.

____

This poem was written as a concluding piece for a series of poems on poetic forms and tchniques—a series that is not yet complete, so the advice offered here is intended for myself as well as others. The alphabet?—one of my favorite forms.