Why Do You Write
Why do you write?
Why do you write? they ask, as if
there is reason for the madness of existence
and the need to make sense
of a senseless world.
Why do you write? a question not unlike
why do you work? which has simple answer:
to live, and love, and linger
over some sensual pleasure.
Why do you write? and I look within
to see why and discover that is why;
to look within to see why,
to see why I am.
And when I write, I bring my inner world
into the spotlight of objective thought,
far from the emotion of my within,
from my emotions within.
And when I write, I bring you into
my view, to gaze upon with an inner eye;
divorced from the ache of longing,
free of sadness and doubt.
And when I write, I put life into
its proper perspective so it puzzles no more,
and I become free: free of you,
free of insistent memory.
I write from inside, where form and metre
are strangers in a strange land and are
stilled, without voice, impotent to shape
the flowing stream of thought.
I write from inside, words bubbling forth as
water from a spring; then spreading in a
meandering flow to fill the waiting void,
bringing meaning into the light.
I write from inside, where thought and emotion
entangle, and need expression to disentangle,
to be given form in words
that resonate through my soul.
Copyright © Edward Clapham | Year Posted 2016
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