My muse

 Yesterday in Creative Writing I asked my students to write a poem in the style of Gertrude Stein. If you know anything about Stein, then you know what a difficult task this is. If you don't know anything about her, then, well, you aren't really missing much. The overall point was to write a poem that was experimental in form and word choice and didn't follow the usual conventions of what we think a "poem" is supposed to be.I asked them to write about someone or something that seems indescribable. They grew increasingly frustrated, so I decided to write a poem about the person in my life who cannot really be defined by words alone, Miss Ella B. I think you'll see that even though this poem doesn't technically make sense, it sums up Ella B quite well.

Ella B Let her be and be and b

Ella B let her be and be and believe and live and buzz yellow wind

Let her swift run electricity

Carbonated lightning

Let her be of a squeal squawk run

Let her be zipper clang and scream of trumpets blaring

Ella B Ella B Ella B be be beat thump crash and swish splash

Be bathtub and belly down and up and down and up

Let her be a heat in winter a ship dives deeper

A wild thunderclap will be her and b and b and b

Believe and Live and Ella B