Now, to Begin...

for Paolo

My eager left-hand fingers fret
my guitar’s six-stringed neck.

Where, oh where, are all the notes?
How can I get this wood to sing?

Each of my fingertips in turn
kisses each taut nylon string.

My right-hand fingers pluck or strum.
My whole being starts to hum.

Anything worth doing
is worth doing

badly!

back to issue

Peggy Landsman is the author of two poetry chapbooks, Our Words, Our Worlds (Kelsay Books) and To-wit To-woo (Foothills Publishing). Her poems and short prose pieces appear in many literary anthologies and journals, including Breathe: 101 Contemporary Odes (C&R Press), Nasty Women Poets: An Unapologetic Anthology of Subversive Verse (Lost Horse Press), SMEOP Urban (Black Sunflowers Poetry Press), Bright Flash Literary Review, Mezzo Cammin, The Offing, and Scientific American. She lives in South Florida where she swims in the warm Atlantic Ocean every chance she gets. https://peggylandsman.wordpress.com/