How to write poems-by Beth Coyote

1. Prepare ye the way.
2. Have a bath.
3. Rummage.
4. Look for your mother's pearl necklace (which has been missing for 3 years)again.
5. Eat a few cookies.
6. Flex.
7. Clean out the garage.
8. Re-read a batch of old poems. Congratulate yourself for your (obvious) brilliance.
9. Sneak up to your computer and pound out a plethora of words.
10. Have a glass of good wine.
11. Have another.
12. Revise.
13. Pare.
14. Fall asleep on the couch.
15. Wake up in your clothes with wine stains on your chin and crumbs in your bra.
16. Repeat.