A andThe

The thing I learnedin a poetry workshop, I learnedon the first day of the first class.

The teacher noted the differencebetween the indefinite articleand the definite article, and how

the choice a poet makesdirects the reader's imaginationdeeper into the mystery of things.

A door versus the door; the roadrather than a road; a house, no, the house—how quickly the teacher showed us the way.

It may not be the spiraling universein a grain of sand, but down through the yearsit's a lesson I've shared with my students,

a worthy summation of all one needsto pick up a pen and write. Beyond that,the question is how to get on with life.