Scott Simpson · Poetry
III. Intrusive Materials
The World We Mean · Creativity as Encounter · Singing · III. Intrusive Materials
All poetryThe original line breaks, stanza spacing, and placement are preserved. Long lines scroll horizontally.
Poem segment 1
III. Intrusive Materials
My friend called them
intrusive materials.
Things arriving uninvited.
Static from another room.
A memory during prayer.
An ambulance passing through dinner.
Most people try to remove them.
He let them stay.
A wrong note
inside the song.
A stain spreading
through watercolor.
A stranger’s sentence
slipping into his notebook
and refusing to leave.
Over time
the border weakens.
What is yours.
What entered from elsewhere.
The work no longer cares.
Because the strongest moments
often come from collision—
your intention
meeting resistance,
your careful structure
interrupted by weather.
Like vines climbing
through a broken fence.
Like wind rearranging papers
across a desk
until a new order appears.
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