Notebooks by Mr. S

Most writers
carry around
tiny notebooks
tucked in their shirt pockets
next to their heart.

They capture
ideas that would flit away
like hummingbirds
without those notebooks.

They make sketches.
Jot down punchlines to jokes.
Ask questions.
Write lyrics.
Copy recipes.

They bear witness
and guard everything
they see, for later.
Poems percolate,
stories stretch,
novels nurse
and till the soil.

Tiny seedlings
that will someday grow
into large tree-castles,
shading summer children
with noses in books
and imaginations in clouds.