Medium

While we're on the topic of writing, I'd like to share an excerpt from a poem by Billy Collins, who is perhaps my favorite American poet. The words in this excerpt caught my heart and made me fall in love with the remainder of the poem, as well as with Collins' works.


"I want to write with the least control,
one finger on the steering wheel,
to write like a watercolorist
whose brush persuades the liquids to stay above the pull and run of gravity.
...

I want to write on air
as in the rapid language of signs
or in the lighting of a cigarette,
both hands cupped near the mouth,
then one waving out the flame
and the long, silent exhalation of smoke,
the gate of the body swinging open.

Most of all,
I want to write on your skin
with the tip of my finger,
printing one capital letter at a time
on the smooth vellum of your back.
I want you to guess the message
being written on your flesh
as children do in summer at the beach,
to feel the shape of every letter
being traced upon your body -- oh, ideal reader --
to read with your eyes shut tight,
kneeling in the sand, facing the open sea."

- excerpts from "Medium", by Billy Collins