Original Art and Poetry by Ingrid H. Turner
 
"All I Ever Wanted"
 
All I ever wanted to do
was write
 
p o e t r y. 
 
"You can't make a living
like that.
 
And what are you?”
is the
 
u n s p o k e n 
 
question - if 
“you're not 
 
p r o d u c i n g ?”  
 
So I left it -
(well 
 
m o s t l y)
 
a long time. 
 
In search of 
dollars and cents 
 
and dollars
and sense
 
and worth 
 
- y - n e s s
 
desperate 
worth -
- less -
- ness! 
 
Until, exhausted 
from digging 
for
purpose
 
I collapsed
hard 
bitter 
ruined. 
 
And poetry - she
 
s a v e d 
 
me from that
fate of 
lifeless 
waste.