The Workshop

   by Nadine Lockhart


I want you write about something important, 
I want you to write about death, and if not death, 
Then think about this poem in terms of your own death, 
As being the last poem you will ever write; and don’t 
Use the form you usually use, do something different, 
If you write five-line poems, write twelve; 
If you write in a jocular style, try somber.
You can stay here or leave and come back; it’s often 
Nice to write around others. You have an hour. Oh, and 
I have some books here you might want to look through.

When the instruction stops, I think: If you write like Ginsberg, 
Try Bishop; if Whitman, try Dickinson, or, Gee, 
Do you think we’re gonna need the whole hour? 
I say nothing. Instead 
Six-lines on my father’s death shaped into a sonnet 
By halving, then adding a couplet. The sonnet, 
A form I seldom use, a form no one uses. 
I make some black tea . . . maybe
This should be the last poem I write.