Emerging poets, emerging writers—
you’re exhausted by lack of publication,
by lack of first book and lack of recognition.
Emerging: consider how language
capable of great precision can still fail.
Look, I’m exhausted too.
I, who underground have labored
to transform for (I hear) nearly thirteen
years, urge you to view this fallow time
as time to develop your craft,
as time well spent in building
your wings, in readying your song.
We will emerge—what else can we do?
