Monday, May 4, 2009

An Edgar Allen Poe-type lesson

I spotted this bit of "poetry" in one of my email newsletters and thought I'd share it with all of you. I think we've all been there...

QUOTH THE EXPERTS: "WRITE SOME MORE"
With apologies to Mr. Poe By Dodie Cross
Do you find that you are dreaming, with your mind alert and teeming?
When of course you should be gleaning, gleaning from your self-help books?
Help lies waiting for the wordless, simply open your thesaurus,
Packed with pages full of meaning that you simply can't ignore:
Quoth the Experts: "Write some more."

Do you find that you are staring at the screen so often bearing
Endless phrases going nowhere that should morph into a poem?
Then you surely now must cling to and so carefully adhere to
All the rules that you have learned, and lean upon them as before:
Quoth the Experts: "Write some more."

Are you blocked with eyes so bleary, shoulders taut and body weary,
Not equipped to stop the daunting doubts that gallop through your mind?
You must still the mindless chatter that drones on in negative manner,
Lest you miss it when your writer's muse raps softly on your door:
Quoth the Experts: "Write some more."

Do you find your verbs escaping and your adverbs overtaking
All the sentences out-breaking with your prose that will not work?
Then it's time to take a breather, call upon your inner teacher
And discover what is missing in your verbiage and your lore:
Quoth the Experts: "Write some more."

Do you close your eyes and fancy all the stories so entrancing,
With your fingers subtly dancing 'cross the keyboard in a song?
Yet with nothing more forthcoming, and with scarcely little cunning,
You are sure to find your answer if your muse you so implore:
Quoth the Experts: "Write some more."

Do you lie awake near midnight, with a pencil, pad and bed-light,
Finding words that have more meaning, with a mind aroused and scheming?
Then it's time to leave the confines of your bed and do a stair-climb
To the window of your soul that can no longer be ignored:
Quoth the Experts: "Write some more."

Do you fear the end result of editors who want no part of
All your energy and love of the creation that you wrought?
Fear no longer, you are stronger as you write, submit, and ponder
When the mailman might come knocking, knocking on your chamber door:
Quoth the Experts: "Write some more."

Do you find some tasks more pressing, when you ought to be addressing,
All your words that lie distressing, on your screen in disarray?
Let them wait until the morrow, let them wait with tears of sorrow
As you write your prose with rapture, as you've never done before:
Quoth the Experts: Write some more.

Do you watch for major pitfalls, reading magazines with tell-alls,
Of life's path that you have chosen, then you're bound to make it big!
Eagerly you write with passion, knowing that your grandest fashion
Will entrance and someday capture one sharp-minded edi-tor:
Quoth the Experts: "Write some more."