I have followed Silver Birch Press for quite a while now (and had a short piece published as part of their “How To” series), and back in April they released a call for poetry and art influenced by American poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti, who died in February of this year. The “I Am Still Waiting” series, an homage to both Ferlinghetti and his 1958 poem, “I Am Waiting,” caught my attention because who isn’t waiting for something? Isn’t that a lot of what we do here on this giant blue ball spinning in the cosmos? Wait? We like to think we’re always active participants in our own destiny, but I’ve yet to meet a single person (including me) who hasn’t let a day or three slip right by them while they wait. Wait for a big event, wait to feel better, wait for a transition, wait for a beginning, wait for an end.

Alas, I am not a poet. At least, I haven’t been one since my high school days, and let’s be honest, weren’t we all poets in high school? (Alexa, play any song from the mid- to late-90s.) So, while I wanted to throw my hat in the ring for “I Am Waiting,” I figured I’d have to sit this one out because, well, I write prose. I was talking to one of my friends (and fellow writer and Silver Birch Press contributor Steve Bogdaniec) about my dilemma and he said, “Why not respond in prose and see if you can turn it into a poem?”

I love a good writing challenge, so that’s exactly what I did. I wrote my poem, “Until Then,” first as a prose piece, articulating my thoughts not about what I’m impatiently waiting for, but what I’m content to wait for. I liked the overall tone of what I had to say, so the next step was setting about turning it into poetry. For me, this involved dredging up every poem I’d even semi-recently read that I enjoyed in order to get a feel for the style I needed to roll with. The result is the piece I submitted and ultimately had accepted for the series.

I enjoyed the exercise, and I’m happy with my poem (or I never would have submitted it for consideration!), but overall it only reinforced my desire to stick with my prose. Poetry, for me, felt like putting a leash on my words, which is proof positive that though I may be able to cobble together a poem here and there, poetry is not where my pen belongs.