I’ve been writing poetry since 1983 when I enrolled in the Wichita State University MFA program. I almost dropped out of the program after the first class session because I felt that I had no business trying to keep up with the more adept writers. Thanks to a professor who encouraged me, I stayed in the program and eventually had quite a bit of success. Bruce Cutler, my thesis advisor, unbeknownst to me, sent one of my poems to the American Academy of Poets contest. It was a shock when he presented me with a $150.00 check and a certificate. I thought he was going to tell me I’d flunked my orals.
Since 1983, I’ve continued to write steadily. I slowed down some when I was teaching at Butler Community College, where I taught English Composition. I often spent my weekends not writing poetry, but grading student essays. Even so, I produced some decent poems during the thirty-five or forty years I taught English Composition. I never ran out of inspiration for poetry.
In the past few months, I’ve become unhappy with what I’ve written. It seems I’ve come to the bottom of the poetry well and I’m now in a poetry drought. I belong to a Facebook page, 365 Poems in 365 Days, a good challenge for any poet. I’ve enjoyed submitting my work and reading the work of others. However I’ve held back from submitting recently because what I write is so lame.
I’ve managed to get two books of poems published in a year and a half one in October 2018, the other in July 2019. I’m happy with both books and others seem to relate to it. One of the books was compiled after I’d had the stroke in December of 2018, and I felt a sense of accomplishment when I got the copies from the publisher. Now I’m don’t know if I ever want to write another poem, let alone create another book.
One of my Facebook friends, a man I like a lot, says I should meditate. He’s a Buddhist and he swears by emptying all the interference from one’s brain. I think I’ll try that–when I get time. Yes, I’m busy. I’ co-editing a poetry anthology, I have doctors’ appointments and tests, and I go to lunch with friends quite often. I think, though, I need to lock myself away from as much as I can and empty my brain from the interference. We’ll see what an empty brain can do.
poetofacertainage 