STONE SOUP
Though I use words,
make from
and by words,
words are neither my clay
or my wheel,
my pot nor my spuds.
Words
are commonplace,
even in poverty
there are too many of them.
Pinch of salt,
pinch a rhyme -
it's forgers and spinners
call language a 'tool'.
And to call it a 'craft'
suggests
too set a goal
too honed a procedure.
Surely,
the poetic trick is
making a meal from
the saucepan.
—Sue Stanford
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An earlier version published in Poetry Scotland's Open Mouse, Feb '05