the river poem

 the river poem

 the words in a poem

stepping stones

across the river cliché

 the lines in a poem

a clapper bridge 

across the river simile

 stanzas

the pillars of a bridge

above the torrent metaphor

 a poem

is a tree

floating down the river pen

 the poet 

a mountain spring

the reader a sink hole

 the book is a sea

is the 

rain it gives

storm petrel words

blown spindrift

 the beachcomber 

collecting bits to burn

 eyes smarting

in the smoke of a poem

written long ago 

yet still smouldering 

ready to burst into flame

in the reader’s drawn breath

place a finger on this or that word

feel the pulse?