This Blog Post Is Cheating (But It Stars Charles Simic!)

I've been smelling the rank odor of blog death for weeks now.


What's that smell? I can't write with that stank all over!
It's the perfume of your own literary failure.
Oh. Well. Can you do something about it?
If you write it will go away.
That's absurd. 'Write'...nonsense. Just burn incense or something. Sandalwood, maybe.
I prefer strawberry.
I care not for your preference, I have writer's block and want to sulk in sandalwood.
Fine, stay a Debbie Downer with failure-stank all over her.


(EXITS, SLAMMING DOOR. 


RANK ODOR INCREASES IN POTENCY.)


(PAUSE.)

What's that smell??

Then I remembered the golden rule of the interwebs: If you find yourself unable to generate content, steal content from real writers. It's the blog equivalent of illegal organ harvesting. Or...yard doctoring. Yes, lets go with yard doctoring as a metaphor: Having discovered you can't even handle a ficus plant let alone an entire yard, you creep into your local botanist's private greenery and purloin some topiaries, then drop them into your lawn in the dead of night. The next day: Ta-da! New content, beautifully presented. Neighbors don't even ask whether you've taken up creative shrub-trimming--they're too busy going, "Oooooh, look, topiaries!" (If you doubt the accuracy of this metaphor, explain the prevalence of Tumblrs featuring adorable kittens that never give photo credit to the feline-photographer.)

Anyway, I'm diversioning attention away from the lack of work by posting more work by better writers. Starting................


.......now.


 THE SCARECROW, By Charles Simic
(from Aunt Lettuce, I Want To Peek Under Your Skirt)

God's refuted but the devil's not.

This year's tomatoes are something to see.
Bite into them, Martha,
As you would into a ripe apple.
After each bite add a little salt.

If the juices run down your chin
Onto your bare breasts,
Bend over the kitchen sink.

From there you can see your husband
Come to a dead stop in the empty field
Before one of his bleakest thoughts,
Spreading its arms like a scarecrow.

Oh God, Another Blog

We can hear your interior monologue. It's streaming reactionary definitives and blanket statements live via the interweb. Things that sound like:

"Oh God, another blog."

and

"This blog's first descriptive word is 'poems.' As in poet-ry. My sphincter just tightened. Not in the fun way."

or

"I feel sorry for this blog author and angry at the world at large."

and also

"The only people who read blogs are other bloggers and they only do it for reciprocation. Like oral sex, but for verbose people."

Hey, we understand.

To soften the blow of another blog spawned, The Trouble With Poet offers these promises and assurances:

• The Trouble with Poet does not feature: limp noodle prose, pictures of kittens, artful stock photo imagery of Cosmopolitans or Appletinis in stem glasses, glittery badges or widgets posted in earnest, wish lists of clothing items the blog author would like to own, rants and raves about ex-lovers/girlfriends/boyfriends that are not at least minimally legitimized by artsy line-breaks or advertisements for Groupons of any kind.
• The Trouble with Poet does feature: poetry, prose, fiction, non-fiction, essays, bits of art, casual boob grazes, random creative sneezes and links to sources of all previously mentioned items.
• The Trouble with Poet reserves the right to be totally full of it at any time.

If you would like to submit pretty much anything to be posted on The Trouble with Poet, with full credit given to you or the original creator, just email thetroublewithpoet@gmail.com. We really like email. And we really like you.