Kimberly O'Connor

                for L

to become a winner
you must lose so
many times you forget
that winning is possible

and win so much
you see that winning
means nothing. The famous
artist says I kept

going. That was all.
We don’t know what
the artist or athlete
who was not famous

said but we see
evidence of their bliss
in the number of
notebooks and racquets used

each year. The artist
said when I saw
the world did not
care what I did,

that was when the
story came together. The
athlete says the pleasure
of the game must

be enough, it must
be everything. So writing
a novel, playing tennis,

these are the same:
you stand in a
square of your own
creation. You become yourself.