Don’t clear your throat. Get right down to it. Don’t be too smart.
Isn’t just talking, relief? Work on your ear.

Steer clear of dull scenery, nuts, and bolts.
Don’t clutter up the page with what everyone knows.

Try to pull beauty like a tiny rabbit out of your hat,
and jounce it on your knee until you feel its tiny heart

skip a beat. Knot your handkerchief. Make a shadow rabbit
out of the weird nothing, everything is. Or,

be the smile on the face of the acrobat working the wire.
After you’ve found the hardest way up, find

the hardest way down. Bod, rev the mind. One makes the other
sit sharp. Shake the chassis a bit. A good poem just might fall out.