Self-Elegy

Poets can be rather indulgent in self-elegy and, from time to time, it goes spilling out all over the place. I never understood when professionals told a younger me again and again that being a poet is as much about writing as it is a way of “being” in the world. I always thought that sounded terribly pretentious and maybe it is, but now I realize it isn’t aggrandizement at all. In fact, most days it’s just a giant inconvenience—nevertheless, a giant inconvenience without which we would grieve and be lost.

-M.