Looking for directions to get out of my own way.
Poem a Day #20
I think too much.
Instead of
letting words spill
across the page
letting words fall
out of order
letting words run
their own races
I think too much
and the ink
in my brain pen
dries up.
I want to channel my inner
Annie Lamott
and write those
crappy first drafts,
the kind where you can mix your tenses like a tossed salad
and place those damn modifiers anywhere you want
but I think too much
and my fingers freeze
like an old woman with arthritis
and the trapped words
grow like barnacles beneath my skin.
I wonder
if I am trying to protect myself
from the world
or maybe it is the world
that needs protecting
from all I might say
if only I wouldn’t think
so damn much.
Susan Taylor Brown.
All rights reserved.
Oh, my. Susan, I love this so much. You have such a gift and your words speak to me. So I guess what I’m saying is it’s fine by me that you think so damn much.
Thank you, Tracy. Love you for your supportive words that always come in when I need them.
I’ve got your back.
Thanks, Tracy.
I love this! Especially this line – “I think too much and the ink in my brain pen dries up”
Brilliant!
Thank you! I thought that was a fun line too!
I love that turn in the 3rd stanza! I mean, I liked the whole poem, but that 3rd stanza knocked it home.
This month of a-poem-a-day has made me “get over it and get it down.”
That image of your words frozen in your hands like knobby arthritis…well, another reason I don’t want my maternal inheritance!
Yes, I am trying for the just do it attitude but it is really hard, mostly because I think too much!