I had to create a restriction and write a poem from it.... I chose to compose a poem using as many book titles as I could from my bookshelf to explain my life.... didn't turn out too bad after all.
Exploring my Bookshelf
I was once a Youth in Crisis;
Swimming in my own World Of Ideas.
Thinking I held the knowledge to life,
Like rock star heaven.
One day I would walk the red carpet.
I had the mapped out games of the Party Book.
I refused to take The Covenant.
Why would I restrict my life like that?
I want to Make Love Like a Porn Star.
Fuck them like Jenna Jameson.
When I grew up I would be the queen of Total Photography
and passion.
What else could I ask for.
Until I had to Be Here Now.
And living like I held the Red Badge of Courage.
But broken,
The Straight Razor always with me.
I was like the Book of the Dead
But I was still living.
I was not invincible, I was wrong?
The Dark of the Moon lit the car crash.
I had to give The Appeal to myself
As the cold hard clink of the sliding jail bars
Slammed shut.
I had to face the facts that I didn’t know me anymore.
This is The Good Things About America. Right?
My Dad used to lock up scum from the street
In this same row of cells.
And then it was Alcoholics Anonymous
Life was like a Honeymoon.
I was Analyzing Moral Issues.
The Drifters of my friends left in the dust.
The cloud of dirt I left back there.
Escaping from the past.
Now I try to be Gorgeously Green.
And doing The Only Dance There Is.
Life.
Driving the Pacific Coast
California.
My dream.
The New World Dictionary of life
is at my fingertips.
-- Jacquelyn Ellison
