ElvenAngel
I forget stuff because I had to make room in my he
This poem was written during my senior year in college when I was grappling with a terrible case of BLOCKAGE. I couldn't do a shit creatively and then it just sorta went away soon after I wrote the first draft of this.
It's full of references to things so I thought it better to actually explain those as well...
* Yellow fog: Reference to The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S. Eliot.
*2 Porlock: Reference to Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem Kubla Khan. Coleridge was in the middle of an opium-induced trance and composing the poem when he was interrupted by 'a person from Porlock', an English village in Somerset, England. The poem remained unfinished. Thus "Person from Porlock", "Man from Porlock", or just "Porlock" are literary allusions to unwanted intruders. Also see here.
*3 Megalodon: Carcharodon megalodon, the largest shark in fossil record to ever exist, well over 15 m (49 feet) in length. Cryptozoology argues it may still exist (and if it did it would be AWESOME). (Source: Wikipedia)
*4 Edgar's Black Cat: Reference to Edgar Alan Poe's short story The Black Cat.
*5 Reference to the myth of Sisyphus.
*6 Daffodils: Reference to William Wordsworth's I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud.
It's full of references to things so I thought it better to actually explain those as well...
Art Blocks, Writer Blocks
Blocks are annoying.
Blocks are cruel and alarming;
Oozing in like yellow fog, or yellow cats*,
Or pounding at the door
Like people from Porlock.*2
Blocks sit on people
Weighing down like anchors,
Trapping your fishing ships.
Blocks keep them in the port of mind
Stuck in shallows and mud.
For the artists want to wade,
Deep into those waters
Looking for their catch,
Not small-fry sardines
But mythic Megalodons.*3
Blocks seem immovable,
Merciless and don’t negotiate.
They cling at your throat
And damn, they hold fast.
Blocks feel like Edgar’s black cat. *4
Blocks gloat and snide
And persist like a vine.
Some bite your head off.
Most just depress you—
You can count on that!
Can blocks be evaded?
De-blocked and deleted?
It’s possible but hard,
Like the punishments in Hades.
Roll, roll that stone—oops. *5
You sit at your desk
Your hands start to hover
Over paper, over keys.
Your mouth grows dry,
Your head starts to spin.
Then the bile creeps in
And you reach for the bin.
You cry as you empty your pit.
You know this frustration.
The block won’t let you face the page.
Then you stare at that page,
So empty and white
And you start over again.
You scribble and doodle,
You roll and roll—Eureka!
Blocks like to play rough,
They drop in and annoy you
But sadly we need them.
They remind us, you know,
That a writer has days of daffodils *6.
---------------------------------------
Blocks are annoying.
Blocks are cruel and alarming;
Oozing in like yellow fog, or yellow cats*,
Or pounding at the door
Like people from Porlock.*2
Blocks sit on people
Weighing down like anchors,
Trapping your fishing ships.
Blocks keep them in the port of mind
Stuck in shallows and mud.
For the artists want to wade,
Deep into those waters
Looking for their catch,
Not small-fry sardines
But mythic Megalodons.*3
Blocks seem immovable,
Merciless and don’t negotiate.
They cling at your throat
And damn, they hold fast.
Blocks feel like Edgar’s black cat. *4
Blocks gloat and snide
And persist like a vine.
Some bite your head off.
Most just depress you—
You can count on that!
Can blocks be evaded?
De-blocked and deleted?
It’s possible but hard,
Like the punishments in Hades.
Roll, roll that stone—oops. *5
You sit at your desk
Your hands start to hover
Over paper, over keys.
Your mouth grows dry,
Your head starts to spin.
Then the bile creeps in
And you reach for the bin.
You cry as you empty your pit.
You know this frustration.
The block won’t let you face the page.
Then you stare at that page,
So empty and white
And you start over again.
You scribble and doodle,
You roll and roll—Eureka!
Blocks like to play rough,
They drop in and annoy you
But sadly we need them.
They remind us, you know,
That a writer has days of daffodils *6.
---------------------------------------
* Yellow fog: Reference to The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S. Eliot.
*2 Porlock: Reference to Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem Kubla Khan. Coleridge was in the middle of an opium-induced trance and composing the poem when he was interrupted by 'a person from Porlock', an English village in Somerset, England. The poem remained unfinished. Thus "Person from Porlock", "Man from Porlock", or just "Porlock" are literary allusions to unwanted intruders. Also see here.
*3 Megalodon: Carcharodon megalodon, the largest shark in fossil record to ever exist, well over 15 m (49 feet) in length. Cryptozoology argues it may still exist (and if it did it would be AWESOME). (Source: Wikipedia)
*4 Edgar's Black Cat: Reference to Edgar Alan Poe's short story The Black Cat.
*5 Reference to the myth of Sisyphus.
*6 Daffodils: Reference to William Wordsworth's I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud.
