Writing Poems

(Chapter 22 My Writing in my book)

Recently, I realized something. Over the past six years, I have been inspired to write poems. So far, I have finished twenty-three poems about living with a memory impairment. I also have a folder on my laptop computer that says “Unfinished Poems” which includes about forty-six poems.

I've often wondered why there are so many poems that I just haven't been able to put the words together to get them finished, but I think in some ways I have figured it out. When I'm inspired to write my poems, I can be anywhere when these thoughts swirl around in my brain, in the car, at work, shopping or many other different places.

Sometimes when I have an idea, I use a piece of scrap paper and I write down a few sentences or just fragments of sentences. By the time I get back to working on it, it could be minutes or many hours later.

I think that when the inspiration strikes me, if I'm at home, I need to mute my television, open a word document and start typing. If I have the television or music on, it is just a distraction for me and I will be unable to focus on my writing.

Very recently, I tried writing a poem, but I stopped and when I got back to it, the ideas were gone! The other day, I decided to go to my “peaceful spot” which is a lake not far from my home. I thought that it would be a place for me to write, so I put my netbook in the car with me and I drove to the lake. I found a nice quiet place, set up my chair, got my netbook powered up, then I opened “Unfinished Poems” folder and I started typing. The only problem that I had was that my netbook was not fully charged, so I had to go sit in my car and use the power cord. I will try this again and see if I can finish some of the unfinished poems. I hope that I can remember that when I feel inspired to write, that if I can I will stop everything and just write. Perhaps then the words will flow more easily and I will get less frustrated!