It was thought you thought and what I saw,

until I didn’t see what I was looking at,

it had words that were yet to be known.

Well, whatever it is, neither of the above,

it would introduce something new, a poem,

I gathered, when I considered the words to come,

words that neither I nor you had any use of,

yet it would be new, and without any

forthcoming needs or demands:  Written

when I realized that existence was missing it.

It could be we didn’t believe in poetry

or that a poem that could be here in such a way

as to demand an explanation excites

a response comparable to digging a hole,

but that it would be known through reading,

and reading is the only way through which a poem is known.

Robert Wooten is a poet whose work has appeared in The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature, where his collection “Four Poems” was published in 2013. His writing often captures the rhythms of everyday life in the South, blending vivid narrative detail with meditations on family, memory, and place. Through pieces such as Counting Out the Change, The Church, and Visiting Father, Wooten explores the intersections of childhood experience, generational ties, and the landscapes of North Carolina. His poetry is marked by a quiet intimacy and a keen eye for the ordinary moments that reveal deeper truths, situating him within the tradition of contemporary Southern literature.