Amye Archer

Amye Archer is a graduate student working towards her MFA in Creative Writing in Northeast Pennsylvania.  She has written
poetry, short stories, a novel that will never be finished, and many truths on bathroom walls.  Her work has appeared, or is
forthcoming in, Twins Magazine, The Short Humour Site, The Ampersand Review, and Oak Bend Review.  Her chapbook, No
One Ever Looks Up was published by Pudding House Press in 2007.  Amye has two-year-old twin daughters, and shares her
life with her brilliant husband, Tim. www.amyearcher.com

The Poet's Prayer


May I speak of images
new and old
crisp and clear
dirty and dry.
may you see them as I see them
happening now
forgetting somehow
that it all happened last year
or the year before
or maybe it never did.

May I learn the vibration of sound
the pounding of the beat
the thumping of the iambic heart
as my verbs slide like worms from my open
gaping mouth.

May the alliteration Gods align themselves --
allowing a litany of rhyme and rhythm.
a symphony of sound and schism-
as my inner thoughts race to organize

by class
by color
by phylum
by kingdom

by race
by country
by gender
by size.

May the magic of the metaphor
wall itself up in my brain
so all I can hear is the clamoring of its cries
the beat of its body's engine
as it drives itself
crazy.