Ars Poetica

by Stefanie Huang, Del Norte High School 26'

Photograph by Man Lai Esther Yu

A poem should flow unceasing and natural

as a waterfall

caress

the feeling of the wind 

caressing its surface

whizzing words into the mind

as an uncontrollable current

A poem should be instinctive

as water cascading over a cliff

A poem should feel like the sun,

beams of sunlight hugging your skin

or burning the pavement

stifling summertime– blistering and unbearable

Even what you cannot see

you can feel

and words that cannot be read

are heard in nature’s lullabies

A poem should give life,

breathe thought into the inanimate

an interpretation of the past

a bouquet of white lilies for what could have been

or for the future

ink embedded in leatherbound journals

A poem should exist beyond

its pages