Dear Writing Coach

Dear Writing Coach,

With all due respect to your committed attempts

to focus me on one true project at a time,

I prefer the undisciplined pursuit of more.

When I ease down the road to find a frog

or pick low-hanging figs, I love how my mind

fiddles over dandelions, faded jeans,

and my mother’s last phone call.

Not to mention, forget-to-do lists,

a nosey neighbor’s sass, or scientific facts

one poem cannot contain. I’m eager

to find homes for sunflowers killed by frost

or bumblebee queens grown weak in early spring.

And those forests moving north each year?

Each deserves the reverence of sonnets

or nonfiction exposés. This is not to say

I’m ungrateful for your blueprinted strategies—

and the way you encourage overcoming fear

is exceptional. But today, I’m re-thinking

the alchemy of promises. This will, I’m sure,

result in a few more incompletes. I’ll text you

to schedule a chat about parsing out essentials

in my chapbook, essay, and book review.

I’ll count on your focused expertise next week.

––Your Committed Student

Carolyn Martin is a recovering work addict who's adopted the Spanish proverb, "It is beautiful to do nothing and rest afterwards" as her daily mantra. She is blissfully retired––and resting––in Clackamas, Oregon. Her poems have appeared in more than 200 publications throughout North America, Europe, and Australia, and her sixth collection, Splitting Open the World, was published in March 2025 by The Poetry Box. For more: www.carolynmartinpoet.com.