Rules for Writing – A Poem

[Rules for Writing – A Poem]

Rules for Writing - A Poem

“Rules for writing to a free person:

1. Remember that you are a prisoner. You must always keep that in mind.

2. Remember that for you, the stream of culture is easily mastered by hours spent watching TV and reading magazines. A free person is too busy, and necessarily swims on the slower periphery of this stream. They will seem behind the fashion; you have the exact opposite problem. Stick to timeless themes.

3. No amount of prison workouts will make you a muscular writer.

4. Rewrite until there’s nothing left but what you must say. Free people don’t have a lot of time and are intimidated by long letters.

5. Don’t ever mail a letter with tearstains on it. Put a brave face on things. You are not in prison to be worried about.

6. Handwriting reveals character. Try not to write like a serial killer.

7. Reward a good pen pal. Maybe have somebody killed for them. [Officials of the Las Colinas Detention Facility: I’m joking!]

8. Don’t be desperate. Remember, letters get lost in the postal system.

9. When everything’s going right in your life, there’s nothing to write about. This explains why you have so much to say and they have so little.”

It almost pasted itself to the wall.

—-

BONUS POEM:

“I love you and I’ve got my eyes on you”
She watched me as I picked up her hands
And sewed them back on her arms
And then she picked up her eyes
From off of me
And put them back in her head.
And picked up her mouth
Where it had been lying

“No,” she says, “I repent.
I will deal with you straight:
You’re a good surgeon
And you’ll work for free if I ask.”

__END__