LIFE DRAWING

Some are born to it,

but you must acquire

innocence. You want 

the dove to whisper

in your ear as the Holy 

Ghost of the Christmas 

cards told the Virgin.

Or, at least, to strip 

away knowledge so

you can see the angle

this honed line makes

with that shadow, not

to say leaf for that

serrated shape or bud 

for green unfurling

but follow the path

the pencil takes

unlearning

Adam’s naming,

returning

to the garden, god

of your own creation.

Diane K. Martin’s work has appeared in Field, Poetry Daily, Zyzzyva, Harvard Review, Narrative, Plume, Rhino, and many other journals or anthologies. She won the 2009 Erskine J. Poetry Prize from Smartish Pace. Her first collection, Conjugated Visits, a National Poetry Series finalist, was published in 2010 by Dream Horse Press.