The Catalyst

reading was the catalyst that pushed you into this writing torture

added bashing out words to the pain of producing yer huge agstract spressionist influenced
images

just stick with the punk guitar you were a natural no creative pain

no desire to ram a paint brush through a canvas

none of this I wish I was just back there a kid loving the drug-hypnotic reading thing

you had the crazy idea that just cuz that was great you might wanna write too

ha ha

you remember when you prayed to little baby jesus that your band would break up cuz you were
on the verge of making it? and you couldn’t deal being roped into playing the devil’s music
FOREVER

well jesus answered your prayer with a yes

and you can’t finish that hellish essay

 

“Intimate Burning ” © Bill Wolak

 

Bill Wolak is a poet, photographer, and collage artist. He has just published his twelfth book of poetry entitled Love Opens the Hands with Nirala Press. His collages have been published in over a hundred magazines including: The Annual, Peculiar Mormyrid, Danse Macabre, Dirty Chai, Hermeneutic Chaos Literary Journal, Lost Coast Review, Mad Swirl, Otis Nebula, and Horror Sleaze Trash. Recently, he was a featured poet at The Mihai Eminescu International Poetry Festival in Craiova, Romania. Mr. Wolak teaches Creative Writing at William Paterson University in New Jersey.