Building Skills
The man blinked, adrift
On the classroom’s sea of papers and pens
(The tools of our trade.)
There were twelve of us, faces eager
To learn how to teach those for whom words danced on the page.
Ready to embark on our voyage.
He’d seen the advert as well, the one about helping with
Building Skills.
And thought he could pass on his know-how with bricks and cement.
For writers are bricklayers, too.
The piecing together
Layer by painful layer.
Each brick, each word with in its place
Keeping the others propped up.
Sometimes, you smash the thing down and start over.
Sometimes, the whole thing collapses.
(Danger: Poem under construction.
Hazard: falling verbs.)
You need firm foundations
The right tools.
The second week,
Only 11 of us showed up.
• Juliet England is a regular contributor to IS&T
