to realize upon the page

 to keep true to the work

when I'm working to capture, to hold, to express an idea,

I am tempted by early choices of wording,

I read long ago some advice 

that I should discard

anything with an easy appeal,

warning that how much I'm attracted to a phrasing

might be more self-indulgence than clarity of vision,

there are furrows in my thinking

into which I can easily slip,

and that then shape my journey forward,

I can choose the easier path,

rather than breaking through the clods that hold me back

and need to be broken through

so that I am truer to the vision before me,

I am tempted by the clever phrasing,

the too common allusion,

at my best I hope

to capture, to hold, to express

that which hesitantly comes at me,

and wants to be realized upon the page.

by Henry H. Walker

July 7, ‘25