​

 

 

Instructions for the Writing Method

of a Middle-Aged Poet​​

 

​4:00 AM. Arrive at your desk.

Listen to the creaking music

the hard-back chair plays

 

as it embraces the all of you.

Don’t reach for the lamp,

not yet—this is the incubation 

 

stage and it’s best to grope

about your rooms in the dark. 

The moon lurks behind branches,

 

and buttery light oozes 

from your neighbor’s kitchen. 

Admit you, too, are the moon.

 

Squeeze through your neighbor’s window. 

Invite yourself to their table. 

Admire their rooster and hen shakers. 

 

Share a cup of coffee. Graciously 

accept the warm blueberry muffin

they offer from a wicker basket. 

 

Talk with them like old friends, 

though you have never spoken 

to them in daylight, which now

 

erases the pine fence’s shadow

as disembodied birdsongs carry 

you back to your writing chair 

 

with one hand gripping a pen, 

and the other lovingly stroking 

the cat that hopped on the desk.

​

​

 

 

Joshua Michael Stewart is the author of Break Every String, The Bastard Children of Dharma Bums, and Love Something. His work has appeared in Modern Haiku, Massachusetts Review, Brilliant Corners, New Flash Fiction Review, and Best Small Fictions 2025. His latest book is Welcome Home, Russell Edson—a graphic novel & prose poem hybrid created in collaboration with illustrators Bret M. Herholz and Aaron J. Krolikowski. ​