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Live Encounters Poetry & Writing September 2023
To a writer still writing at 3 AM, poem by John Samuel Tieman.
To a writer still writing at 3 AM
Lately I’ve been taken by the saints, by their practice of
silence and prayer, taken by the verb illuminated long
after midnight. We’ve all spent a night like a stalker
who drives by slowly, looking, waiting for something
like a crime that never ends.
We’ve all thought surely, surely we can begin with
a line from a night like that. I don’t know. Nor do I know
what Aquinas would write. I do know that in this silence
you will find a verb sacred enough for a simple sentence
you will revise until dawn.
© John Samuel Tieman
John Samuel Tieman, of St. Louis, is a widely published poet and essayist. His chapbook, “A Concise Biography Of Original Sin”, is published by BkMk Press. His poetry has appeared in “The Americas Review”, “The Caribbean Quarterly”, “The Chariton Review”, “The Iowa Review”, “Rattle”, “River Styx” “Stand”, and “Vox Populi”. He writes a weekly column for “Axar.az”, a popular online news service in Eurasia.
Again, a lovely poem that draws me in each time I read it.