Inspiration

Tony Kushner wrote plays as a telephone operator,
Kafka wrote stories at night after working as an insurance adjuster,
Grisham penned court room dramas religiously for three years before
being published.

These playwrights and novelists and poets,
Lived a dual existence-

By day,
They lived an ordinary existence,
Maintaining a 9-5 or overnight shifts
While balancing obligations like
family, grocery shopping, taxes, rent or mortgage
friends, bills, lovers

At night, 
Undercover, 
In their precious time-

They were on a lonely, thankless journey,
Only their desk, the lamp and their pen and paper/typewriter/computer
 as company,
Communing with their muse,

Creating, Rewriting, editing, repeat

Telling stories for the mere pleasure,  to satisfy an 
Incurable hunger for their words, thoughts, voices

To be expressed, considered, read,

Without the guarantee of money, fame, recognition or success..

I remember them when verse rushes through my mind 
like an angry, swollen April river,
That I forget the words as quickly as I conceive them,
or I compose long winded poems
with no direction, shape or grace.

I remember them when procrastination and writer’s block
Prevents me from writing for days, months or years,
or when I hear that my high school nemesis is a doctoral
Candidate in poetry 

I remember and thank them for giving my inspiration
To continue.

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