TO FILL UP AN EMPTY PAGE There will be times when you must lose your mind forget all you have learned to fill-up an empty page.   There will be gross stops and sudden tugs along the way, places where the words snag   like, in Block-City, where you  have to stop and reflect upon what your writing teacher   said at the roundtable when he frowned at you like a worn- out, hag-ridden cop, angry   because an accident occurred when you stopped before an onslaught of tough language that growled and lurched like   a lion in a hive of hyenas. You confused being a poet with being a preacher. In writing, you only save your-   self, maybe one, or more onlookers, if you are lucky. Write! as if you are the last   human left in this broken world, one, in which you couldn't allow another to further wreck, nor to fix. --Willie James King Willie James King is a poet, educator, and actor. A native of Orrville, Alabama, he has taught French and English at community colleges and high schools in Alabama. He is the recipient of a School District Leadership Award from the CBC Education Brain Trust. He also spent a season as an actor with the Alabama Shakespeare Festival. In addition to At the Forest Edge, he is the author of Wooden Windows (Austin: Sulphur River Literary Review Press). His poems have appeared in numerous journals, including America, Appalachian Heritage, Bellowing Ark, Blue Unicorn, Confrontation Magazine, Crazy Quilt Qaurterly, Hawaii-Pacific Review, Mudfish, New Laurel Review, Obsidian, Pembroke Magazine, Puerto del Sol, Rattle, Southern Poetry Review, Wallace Stevens Journal, and Willow Review. He is a Pushcart Prize nominee and has been anthologized in Dark Eros: Black Erotic Writings (New York: St.Martin’s Griffin). He lives and writes in Montgomery, Alabama. Visit Willie’s website for more information.

TO FILL UP AN EMPTY PAGE

There will be times when you must lose your mind forget all you have learned to fill-up an empty page.   There will be gross stops and sudden tugs along the way, places where the words snag   like, in Block-City, where you  have to stop and reflect upon what your writing teacher   said at the roundtable when he frowned at you like a worn- out, hag-ridden cop, angry   because an accident occurred when you stopped before an onslaught of tough language that growled and lurched like   a lion in a hive of hyenas. You confused being a poet with being a preacher. In writing, you only save your-   self, maybe one, or more onlookers, if you are lucky. Write! as if you are the last   human left in this broken world, one, in which you couldn't allow another to further wreck, nor to fix.

--Willie James King

Willie James King is a poet, educator, and actor. A native of Orrville, Alabama, he has taught French and English at community colleges and high schools in Alabama. He is the recipient of a School District Leadership Award from the CBC Education Brain Trust. He also spent a season as an actor with the Alabama Shakespeare Festival. In addition to At the Forest Edge, he is the author of Wooden Windows (Austin: Sulphur River Literary Review Press). His poems have appeared in numerous journals, including America, Appalachian Heritage, Bellowing Ark, Blue Unicorn, Confrontation Magazine, Crazy Quilt Qaurterly, Hawaii-Pacific Review, Mudfish, New Laurel Review, Obsidian, Pembroke Magazine, Puerto del Sol, Rattle, Southern Poetry Review, Wallace Stevens Journal, and Willow Review. He is a Pushcart Prize nominee and has been anthologized in Dark Eros: Black Erotic Writings (New York: St.Martin’s Griffin). He lives and writes in Montgomery, Alabama.

Visit Willie’s website for more information.

U.S. Army Pfc. Justin Snider, with 3rd Battalion, 17th Field Artillery Regiment, rests on an M-777 105mm howitzer before a fire mission at Forward Operating Base Ramrod, Afghanistan, Dec. 15, 2009. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Dayton Mitchell/Released) Date Posted: 12/17/2009 (Photo Courtesy Cryptome)