#48 - My biggest excuse to others and myself was that I had writer's block, as if it was some kind of illness. Mary Garden

A WRITER’S MALADY

Words that used to excite me
seldom do more than bore.
Whatever disease I suffer,
there’s no apparent cure.

A poem locked in my head,
tales that beg to be told,
remain unreleased on paper
from imagery grown cold.

Finding light in the darkness,
escaping talents that mock,
I desperately seek relief from
crippling writer’s block.

#47 - I would so much like young people to have a sense of the gift that they are. Not many of them feel like that. John Denver

ADVICE

A hill becomes a mountain.
The earth becomes too big.
The future breaks apart sometimes,
like stepping on a twig.

But obstacles that hide the way
are not that hard to breach.
The means for overcoming trials
is well within your reach.

You have the power in your hands
to set the world ablaze.
So recognize the gift you are
and conquer stormy days.

#46 - Old minds are like old horses; you must exercise them if you wish to keep them in working order. John Adams

AN ONGOING PROCESS

Hoping for a distribution
from one, single contribution
measures what we deem to think unwise.
Seeking simple absolution
without need for restitution
quickly guarantees a swift demise.

We escape the persecution
through a heartfelt elocution
when our brain releases its disguise.
Minds, intent on evolution,
find the perfect revolution
when we reach beyond what we surmise.

APOLOGY FOR DELAYED POST

I apologize for the delayed post here at The Magnified Muse. We changed internet service providers on Wednesday and the service was not actually up and running until this morning. Ever onward and upward!

#44 - Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead. Oscar Wilde (original posting date: 5/12/11)

A FLOWER DIED

Deep in the soil
we planted a flower,
assuming that it would grow
without being tended,
without giving heed
to the life it was eager to know.

Years of neglect
made it wither away
‘til nothing was left to be seen
but the rotting remains
of love that turned gray
from the promise it once held when green.

#45 - In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on. Robert Frost (original posting date 5/19/11)

AND SO IT GOES

It started out like every day
with promises at dawn,
but quickly slipped from my control
as hours speeded on
from morning to the afternoon
and headlong into night.
Before me sat an empty page
with words I’d yet to write.

I argued with my inner child
who eagerly sought play
instead of focusing upon
the writing due today.
But unrepentant, I retire
knowing that with dawn
another day awaits my words
as life keeps moving on.

#43 - I took some time out for life. James L. Brooks

MISSED OPPORTUNITIES

I’m a poet and a writer
and the fortress I have built
is in my imagination,
free from time’s consuming guilt.
But when lost in my computer
or imprisoned by a word,
I’m immune to simple pleasures,
with the song of life unheard.