Over at my Substack, Poetry for Life, we are writing poems about “sweet failure” from Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer’s collection Naked for Tea. Today we are using her poem “Though It Is Tough to Choose It” for inspiration.
Failure #1 didn’t change me as much as I thought it would. Failure #2 only changed me a little. It was Failure #3 that remade me and still remakes me.
Some Call Me Morning Glory
Failure #1 — I asked everyone for help
Failure #2 — I confided in two friends
Failure #3 — I told no one
Failure #1 — I was angry
Failure #2 — I was in despair
Failure #3 — I was so, so sorry
Failure #1 — I kept working
Failure #2 — I found new work
Failure #3 — Brooding colored all my work
Failure #1 — Found mornings
Failure #2 — Found evenings
Failure #3 — Found the whole damn day
Failure #1 — I am all broken
Failure #2 — Bindweed and Morning Glory are the same flower
Failure #3 — Anything might bloom now
– Megan Willome
I loved this book. As soon as I finished, I began reading it again.”
—David Lee Garrison, author of Playing Bach in the D. C. Metro
