The Portal of the Page by Daniel Seifert

The Portal of the Page

We are all time
travelers,
though most of us don’t know it.
We place one day before the next
like the footsteps of a drunkard.
Strapped into the future while now
sneaks past, unseen.

Something must be done, and can:
a journal is an anchor.
Its function, to bend
your neck to yesterday and ask
what needs setting down.

Do this.
1. To feel ink flow and leave a screen untapped,
if only for a moment.
2. To interrogate what matters and
let it feel the texture
of a waiting page.
3. To look back (how could you
forget that night,
that storm,
that drink that killed its bubbles,
that thought you thought
you’d never think again).

This thought matters:
let your history be
graffiti on a wall
and not a black hole.
Get your pen.

*

Daniel Seifert’s writing is published or forthcoming in The New York Times, Consequence, The Poetry Society of New York, and Chiron Review. In 2023 he was shortlisted for the Bridport Prize, and longlisted for the Letter Review Prize. He is currently undertaking a Masters in Creative Writing at Lasalle College of the Arts in Singapore. He tweets @DanSeifwrites