[ NaPo 2021 ] [ D&N ] Of Course Corrections

  
When I asked the bookstore clerk  
if they had any books by "Jeffrey Bates"  
the answer was, No  
   
Not surprising, considering  
I had dreamt the person's name  
being mentioned during a book promotion  
   
However, there was a "Jefferson D Bates"  
who authored Precision In Writing  
originally published in 1978  
   
the gist of which was about excising  
excess language in anything written  
---government documents notably  
being the worst known literary offenses  
to Humanity, as well as the Humanities  
   
An item not normally stocked;  
this handbook required special ordering  
---never saw it on a shelf  
or in a catalog to begin with  
for those of you thinking that's how  
I ended up dreaming about the man  
   
Just get to the point when writing  
   
Of course! And advice  
can't get any simpler than that;  
it's what helped fashion me into  
the poet I am today  
 
especially after a disasterous  
attempt at long winded fiction  
which was my dream job  
   
I was born to be a writer;  
that much is obvious  
   
but without direction, you may  
end up going the wrong way  
or just plain nowhere  
with your talents