This is one of my favorites to perform, and I have done so from memory at Poetry Out Loud in 2019, Solano County Library Foundation’s Why Poetry event in 2018, and most recently on the San Mateo County fair’s literary stage. It appears in the book Poet Loiterer.
Poetic Timing
Poetry never comes at a convenient time.
It shows up in the shower as a silly rhyme.
It reveals itself to me
when I’m hiking around.
It comes to me at services
when I’m making prayerful sounds.
It weaves its way into my psyche
when I’m driving in the country.
It interrupts conversations
and it demands to be heard.
But when I sit with pen and paper,
it never says a word.