Ruth Forman

If You Lose Your Pen

and all you find is a broken pencil on the floor

and the pencil has no sharpener

and the sharpener is in the store

and your pocket has no money

and if you look again

and all you find is a black Bic

and the Bic you need is green

and if it appears beneath the mattress of your couch

but the couch is dirty and you suddenly want to clean

beneath the pillows

but you have no vacuum and the vacuum is in the store

and your pocket has no money

it is not your pen you are looking for

it is your tongue and those who speak with it

your grandmothers and doves and ebony spiders

hovering the corners of your throat

it is your tongue

and if you cannot find your tongue

do not go looking for the cat

you know you will not find her

she is in the neighbor’s kitchen eating Friskies

she is in the neighbor’s yard making love

if you cannot find your tongue do not look for it

for you are so busy looking it cannot find you

the doves are getting dizzy and your grandmothers annoyed

be still and let them find you

they will come when they are ready

and when they are

it will not matter if your pockets are empty

if you write with a green Bic or a black Bic

or the blood of your finger

you will write

you will write

From We Are the Young Magicians (Boston: Beacon Press, 1993). Copyright © 1993 by Ruth Forman. Reprinted by permission of the author.

Curator's notes

Niki Herd:

We all have moments when we distract ourselves from writing. Perhaps we’re avoiding a difficult subject matter, or perhaps we’re simply in the habit of cultivating a life of distraction which keeps us forever from the page. Whatever the cause, this poem is a gentle, tell-it-like-it-is reminder to quit making excuses; to be still so that the words, your words, which are so necessary and important, can come.

 

Ruth Forman is the author of three award-winning books: poetry collections We Are the Young Magicians (Beacon, 1993) and Renaissance, (Beacon, 1997) and children’s book, Young Cornrows Callin Out the Moon (Children’s Book Press, 2007).She is the recipient of the Barnard New Women Poets Prize, The Pen Oakland Josephine Miles Literary Award, The Durfee Artist Fellowship, a DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities Artist Fellowship, the National Council of Teachers of English Notable Book Award, and recognition by The American Library Association. She provides writing workshops at retreats, schools and universities across the country and abroad, and has presented in forums such as the United Nations, the PBS series The United States of Poetry and National Public Radio. Ruth is a former teacher of creative writing with the University of Southern California and June Jordan’s Poetry for the People program at UC Berkeley and a twelve-year faculty member with the VONA-Voices writing program. Also an MFA graduate of the University of Southern California School of Cinema-Television, she frequently collaborates on film, music, dance, theatre, art and media projects. Her latest collection is Prayers Like Shoes (2009) from Whit Press. When not writing and teaching, she practices a passion for martial arts: classical Yang family style tai chi chuan, tai chi sword, bo staff and karate. Ms. Forman currently lives in Washington, DC.