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it’s hard

things aren’t easy

“easy to say and hard to do”
“nothing comes from nothing”

and all that

but what does it really mean

anyone who’s built a house
or a complicated computer program
from scratch
knows

and may be able to tell you
if you can listen

a good artist
and each person who dares
to create something
that never existed

or change something carefully
to make it better

knows too

it means starting with nothing
but an idea
and starting with not knowing
but believing you can figure it out

and building from that
one piece and one fact at a time

and learning how to fit each piece
each fact
with another

over and over

day after day

and make mistakes
and care enough to see them

and fix them

and learn

and not make mistakes
but stand back
and want to make it even better
and do some parts again
until you know they’re right

day by day
one piece one fact
married to another

sets of facts and pieces
put together to make
bigger pieces
and one assembly
married to another

building and building

until you’re done

and your idea works
just like you knew it would

from A Graduation — 6 spontaneous poems — Bill Eberle

June 12, 2013

© 2013, Bill Eberle