Writing Virginia’s Way

Staring out the window—wasn’t it Virginia
Woolf who said that most writing was
just that? Writing is just that
or staring at the soap,
slick and lively in the hand as
the shower steams and ideas form,
flower and disappear into rivulets
meandering through a misty landscape.

Writing is musing, then muttering
over the imperfection
of unwritten words, the blank page
as innocent and guileless as
the newborn wailing for solace
that hardly comes. Oh, but when
it comes, it comes like summer
rain, smells clean as creosote in the desert,
washed by wonder and good fortune.

Rebecca del Rio