Are You Like Me, By Brian37 (AKA Brian James RationalPoet on FB/META and @Brianrrs37 on Twitter/X)

Are you like me
When you write poetry
Not worried about perfection
But message dedication

Are you like me and don’t worry
About always being fancy
Counting syllables like calories
Castles that stand on simplicity

Oh sure I can get lofty
Upon occasion, but I fear more
Not getting it out at all
My poems are like a dimpled face

My bushy eyebrows
Out of place
The broken nose
On my face

I don’t write at a snail’s pace
If to dwell on every letter
My paralyzation
Wouldn’t get better

If I dwell to much, I get stuck
I run head on into a muck
In mid stanza
My poem has swung

Taken it’s own path, I won’t obstruct
I go with the flow, to construct
A perspective, a brush, a pallete

I hammer them out like a mallet
Sometimes. I will never brag
I will never boast

That all are masterpieces
Everyone must toast
I consider my method

Of getting them out
High speed camera shutter speed
After I shoot, I pick out good steed

I’ve heard the masters humble
They are my breed, indeed
Even they say, not all theirs are hits

Take Plath’s “Mirror”
Or Sexton’s “Wanting To die”
I see no reason for rhyme every time

I worry not, I just try
If anything, it is to to me
My daily refuge, my silent cry

My therapy, to be just me
To be flawed and raw, saw
Out another woodsman whittle

With words, creating worlds
In other’s minds
Frame size different of all kinds

I try to do this every day
I try to always find a way
Not to be scared of putting in view

Not afraid of showing you.
If you don’t like this one
That’s ok too

To every poet I’d advise as well
Never stop writing
Don’t hide in a shell

Just be inviting , living
In the world of poetry
Always insisting

To be yourself.
(end)

It is always good practice to simply pump them out sometimes. Kind of like cleaning your pipes. Sometimes when you don’t overthink it you hit a stride and it flows out.

I’d prefer to default to pumping them out rather that worry about every letter every word. I am certain I have written over 1,000 in 30 years. I am sure in my list here, you will find some you like and some you don’t.

But every poet is like this. If any poet is bragging about all their poems being hits, they are shallow, and self absorbed. Most poets are humble and will never claim everything they do is gold.