What does one do <br />If one finds oneself <br />Suffering the symptoms <br />Of being a poet? <br /> <br />Try to gargle aloud <br />Uttering gargling sounds <br />It may cleanse the contagion <br />Before it enters your system <br /> <br />That's all you can do <br />Once the rest of the symptons start <br />You feel it in your head <br />It pounds in your herart <br /> <br />Your forehead feels warm <br />You cannot sit still <br />Words start coming out <br />Pages and pages you fill <br /> <br />It's like a fever <br />Compelling you to write <br />It does not come out easy <br />There still is a big fight <br /> <br />It's like a civil war <br />Words want out right away <br />Some content is stuck while <br />The brain argues for its way <br /> <br />Then writer's block hits <br />It's like serious constipation <br />On top of feeling ill <br />You can't go <br /> <br />You sit for a long time <br />Nothing happens <br />No need for paper <br />You have only pain <br /> <br />Accompanied by the urge <br />To let loose <br />The more you concentrate <br />Nothing happens <br /> <br />So you give up <br />Stand up and walk away <br />Take a long walk outdoors <br />Deep into Frost's snowy woods <br /> <br />Suddenly the urge <br />It's all there at once <br />And it catches you <br />With no paper.<br /><br />Tom J. Mariani<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/05-09-symptoms-of-being-a-poet/
