This is the fourth Jasper Ballard poem to make an appearance at vox poetica. The last one we saw was She Thinks back in May. The struggle he writes about today is relatable in some way to just about anyone who has ever written. At a certain point many would say compulsion overtakes inhibition and we stop saying “I can’t” and simply begin to write.
Writing …
By Jasper Ballard
I want to write
It’s in me to write
The words don’t come
They’re just not there
Ideas race around my head
Thoughts colliding
What do I do?
How do I say it?
The paper stares back at me
Waiting … waiting
My heart is racing.
I have to write
Say something
Anything
The words don’t come
I want to connect
Make the words matter
Express
So frustrating
Infuriating
It’s right there
In my head
The words escape me
Exhausted
Giving up
The paper stays empty
Never to share my feelings
These colliding ideas
will stay where they are
I’ll never be able to write
But yet you did write. A good description that all writers can relate to.
What a great poem! That seems to happen to me on a daily basis!
And, yet Jasper, you HAVE!! Nice job describing one of those days in a writer’s life.
After reading this I doubt that you’ll never be able to write again. I love the way you nailed it for so many of us.
I used to think I knew something or had something to say.
Some bit of understanding that got lost along the way.
I tried for many years to find the words,
to tell the world what it was that had been lost,
But then I learned that they already knew,
They just didn’t care about the loss.
So I moved into tomorrow like the rest of the seething mass,
lived for only today and forgot about the past,
But then I looked around me and saw the terrible result,
and now I want to cry and shout,
all of this is our fault.
I don’t know how to tell you,
or how to make you care,
but the pollution in our water,
the haze that’s in the air,
the chemicals in our food,
it’s not supposed to be there.
We are the cancer that eats into our home,
we are the cause of the problems in the human genome.
The greed for always more and the laziness of no concern,
are the spark that ignite the fire,
will we be complacent and watch our world burn?
Or will we find the strength to change,
and save ourselves at last,
and learn from our mistakes along the way,
and no longer ignore our past?