I wanted to write like Heaney
but of course he got there first
and could do it in two languages,
so that was out of the question.

I tried to write like other
of the greats only to find that
what set them apart from so many
set them rather far apart from me.

So I an left to write as myself,
which I find a bit boring for I
know myself all too well, and anything
I say or write I’ve heard before.

But I suppose you have not
heard it before so unless you are
the one who sneaks into my dreams
before I can capture them,

in which case would you return
the best of them, for in them
I know lies whatever better poems
I have yet to cast to paper.