The Best Laid Plans

I had every intention of writing a poem a day for the year. I have already missed a few days in the first month, and had to go back on one of my basic rules for this about a week ago, so... a poem a day for a year it will not be.

Though I said I would

write poetry every day

I found it difficult

My mind therein to stay.

I have learned a few things about my creativity in the process, so it's been very helpful.

1. I have always admired the people who can consistently produce a small work over time. My favorite cartoonists are people who produce a daily comic strip or a monthly comic book for decades. That slow drip of creative production is incredibly impressive to me. I aspire to it.

2. My brain is not wired that way. Even a little. I work in huge bursts of creative output, punctuated by periods of relative malaise. I can write an entire game in 60 days, and then will spend 3 months struggling to get a 4-page supplement done. I am learning to accept that rather than resisting it.

3. Teaching is a fundamentally creative activity for me. The same muscles that I use for poetry here are the exact ones I use for teaching. Therefore, I'm drawing fuel from the same sources on both, and the teaching has been using it up - by the end of the day I'm mentally tired and creatively spent for that day. I could write a poem at that point, but I'd be mailing it in. The goal is to actually write poetry I invest in. I just don't have the energy for it right now. 

None of this is bad. It is what it is. I will keep this blog here, and I'll keep posting poetry as the mood strikes, maybe a dozen poems at a time, but a poem a day is not realistic for me.

Thanks for reading :)