I am not a Bread Loaf fellow
and I haven't been to Sewanee
adoration and fame
are not my cup of tea.
The Academy of American Poets
doesn't recognize my name,
no MFA
or Guggenheim
I'll never be poet laureate
but for me,
that's fine.
It's just
I write because I must.
At 20
my art sprouted
midst concrete and steel
nourished by the
Muse
and desperation,
but powerful, real
having heart
and my poetry isn't less
because it got its start
in prison presses,
small newsletters, a few anthologies,
chapbook contests,
workshops-
but without excesses
quietly groomed- not flaunted
there, slowly, like some
jungle flower
it bloomed
- proud, undaunted.