Four recipes for writing poems

Thanks for your comment and I'm glad you won't be taking me to court. This poem is based on my present creative habits, which seem to be helping me to write. I realize I'm lucky to have the necessary time and cash to use all four of these recipes almost every day. That's partly because our kids have grown up and become more or less independent now, so I have less of a workload, fewer expenses and more free time than before. I look forward to hearing about other poets' recipes... Best Wishes, Robert.

This is powerful writing, but I fail to see the connection with my 'Four recipes for writing poems'. Best Wishes, Robert.

I don't think I'd ever heard that expression before but I like it a lot. That's exactly what poets need in order to be able to let their minds wander a little. Mind you, four o'clock in the morning is pushing things a bit for me. Perhaps such early rising is due to that protestant work-ethic you people are supposed to have over there. My family (or what's left of it) doesn't usually get up till nine, so if I make it downstairs by six I have three whole hours of 'alone time'... Many thanks for your comment. Best Wishes, Robert.

I have just noticed that this 'write' has already had over 40 hits but only one poet (thanks, Richard) has so far offered to share his or her own usual method of achieving creative success, so Neopoet writers would seem to be like the owners of Coca-Cola - unwilling to reveal their secret formula. Perhaps they are afraid that other poets will compete with them better if they do! Alternatively they may simply be disgusted at my greediness (as described in this poem)... LET'S HAVE A FEW MORE REVELATIONS PLEASE!

Thanks for your comment, Ink. Perhaps what I am really talking about in my greedy-minded poem is various kinds of physical stimulation rather than a muse - and then our situation in life is so important too, like the amount of free time available in which to be alone and un-distracted (see Richard's comment). While my kids were growing up i hardly wrote any poems at all because I was just too busy/tired/stressed out etc. Perhaps my main 'muses' are really my family and nature. I'll try to check out the poems you mention. Best Wishes, Robert.

I'm sorry to hear about your depression, Arrow, and hope it's now thoroughly over. I had a one-and-a-half year ordeal of a similar kind quite recently. In my case, I only got better when I secretly stopped taking the pills a psychiatrist had prescribed (Prozac was one of them) which were turning me into a zombie as well as causing several serious side-effects such as impotence and diarrhoea. My wife doesn't know I'm off the medication, but she keeps remarking on how much better I am (thanks to all the wonderful pills, she assumes) so I guess I have done the right thing. Luckily she'll probably never find out how I really managed to recover, partly because she never reads this blog (never having liked poetry) and partly because my psychiatrist has now said I'm better thanks to his prescriptions (three months after I quietly gave them up) so he can take me off medication at last. He seems to be quite surprised at having actually managed to cure anyone. This may well be the only time his drugs (as he believes) have appeared to work. The impotence and frequent diarrhoea started to go as soon as I stopped taking the Prozac and other anti-depressives. Neither of of those two side effects were any fun, as I'm sure you can imagine...(All that is only my particular case, though, so if you're still on pills I can't promise that the same kind of devious solution would be appropriate for you.) As seems to have been true in your illness, too, my depression was a source of inspiration for writing poetry, which became an essential form of therapy (much more effective than dubious medication or expensive shrinks in my opinion). The only problem is that it tended to produce poems of 'gloom and doom', which may not be too attractive to readers who often have enough problems of their own without having to listen to mine. Nevertheless, I'm gradually filtering some of those pieces into Neopoet, in between some lighter stuff so as not to acquire a reputation for being too dismal. Perhaps you will find that in the on-going editing process you mention in your comment you will be able to see things in a more optimistic light, though I think it will be important to try to retain any deep insights into your life which depression may have brought to you (which is the only slightly positive thing about being depressed - but that's a high price to pay for insights, as I'm sure you know all too well by now...) Best Wishes, Robert. P.S. When I was finally able to make love again, I enjoyed a memorable sexual reconciliation with my fair spouse. Most pleasures seem to be enhanced by having a break from them for a while before indulging in them all over again... Perhaps I should thank my psychiatrist for having made me wait so long, thus setting up one of the best nights of my life...I'll be posting a poem on this theme in a few days...