National Poetry Month, v. 7.0, day 8

So, a challenge came in yesterday, and it's a good one.  I've been thinking about it, trying to find a way to make it work, and it's tough.  No, it's nothing silly like trying to make a ball-point pen, ennui, the Statue of Liberty Play, and a fine single malt work together in a poem.  Sure, I could do that - particularly if partaking of the single malt - but this challenge is much harder.  It was noted to me that I write a lot in the first person, and in the third person, but spend very little time in the second person.  I have a secret: a lot of my stuff starts out in the second person, and I usually end up changing it to the first person, because to me, that lends it a "concrete" quality, rather than a "talking down to another person" quality.  I think it's simply more authentic to write poetry in the first and third person.

But what is the rarely seen second person?  You.  Yup, it's "you."  Rather than write about "the man" or "me", it's about writing in the "you."  It's seen a lot in what I will call "Instructables."  Recipe writing, business writing, basic instructions like you would leave for someone to follow explicitly, etc.  are all places where you will find it.  It's an art form, to write this way, and it's one I rarely practice, perhaps because to me, it feels cold an impersonal - and as anyone who knows me can tell you, I am anything but cold and impersonal.

I'm still left with a question:  what to write about in the second person?  I hope you like what came to mind.

Thanks for reading,

Me

you must go on

you must go on -
on the stage,
on the trail,
on the path,
through the scary woods alone at night.

you must go on -
in the storm,
in the calm,
in the dark,
even though you are weary with fright.

you must go on -
at morning,
at mid-day,
at suppertime,
when things don't feel right.

you must go on -
from then,
from now,
from hence,
because it's the only way you will find the light.