Ars Poetica Clementis

Ars Poetica Clementis

By Bethany Beeler

Photo by United Press International, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons, adapted by Scott Bolohan

If you want to write poetry, write
How he punished the ball. Your boyhoods
Recall majesty, empire, that
Swing and the hush of the crowd. His trot
Was Smith’s sprint, his lob Jones’ grimacing
Peg. If you ever watched his diving
Catch, you grasped in the arch of that
Swan the death-throes of God. Poetry
Performs where word and deed mesh —
Make your muse his bleeding
Spike cuts, your bread his flesh.

Author and artist (she does the cover paintings for her books), Bethany A. Beeler was born and raised in the Pittsburgh, PA area. After college, she settled in Texas for the next 37 years with her wife Pamalyn, raising three children, and mayoring the city of Krum, TX. She’s been a professor, teacher, and tech writer. For more info, you can visit her website, Twitter, or Instagram.