My Favourite Poem of the Modern Era

From one of my favourite poets

Photo by Jr Korpa on Unsplash

Stephen King once said, “If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.”

He’s right. So, one of the best things about being a full-time writer is how much I get to read.

This is how I found John Roedel — a modern poet spreading a beautiful message.

He graciously allowed me to include parts of the poem I’m about to share with you in my new book — The Joy of Breathing.

Here it is in full.

Breath

My brain and
heart divorced
a decade ago
over who was
to blame about
how big of a mess
I have become.

Eventually,
they couldn’t be
in the same room
with each other.

Now my head and heart
share custody of me.
I stay with my brain
during the week
and my heart
gets me on weekends.

They never speak to one another
– instead, they give me
the same note to pass
to each other every week
and their notes they
send to one another always
says the same thing:
“This is all your fault.”

On Sundays
my heart complains
about how my
head has let me down
in the past
and on Wednesday
my head lists all
of the times my
heart has screwed
things up for me
in the future.

They blame each
other for the
state of my life.
There’s been a lot
of yelling — and crying
so,
lately, I’ve been
spending a lot of
time with my gut
who serves as my…