Notes to a Young Poet

You are a kernel
Of an unrepeatable expression
In the history of a world.

Follow the dark star.

Between being awake and
Dreaming you are awake,
The diamonds are hidden.

Love will break you up
through that concrete,
Leave you askance,
yet priceless.

You are not fine wine.
You are not brass nor wood.
What you are money cannot buy.

Hide the center.
Give the rest away.

Be mindful of this:
Only the living are dying.

If they howl to scrape your bones,
Howl with them.

Go forward now,
No matter how you arrived,
Awaiting in vain that tepid rapture.

Interpretation is half the beauty.
The other half is you.

Wayne David Hubbard is an author and educator. His work appears in Button Poetry, Eloquent, and Wild Word magazine. His first book Mobius: Meditations on Home was published in 2020. He lives in Virginia, works in aviation, and writes creatively about experience, history, and culture.