BARTHOLOMEW BARKER

How I Learned to Write Poetry

Little boy in a yellow rain coat

and galoshes squatting in the gutter

watches the rain become a river.

He places rocks to make rapids and dams—

to punctuate the flow, but it never stops.

He loses hours building, destroying, rebuilding.

A distant call for dinner ends his work.

He returns home soggy, shivering, smiling,

eager to share his aquatic adventures.

There's the past, the future

and the current.

Bartholomew Barker works with Living Poetry. He has published a full-length collection, a chapbook and been nominated for a Pushcart and the Best of the Net. His work has recently appeared in Autumn Sky Poetry Daily, Panoply, Tipton Poetry Journal, Gyroscope Review and the Naugatuck River Review among others. www.bartbarkerpoet.com

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