How I write

I first started writing, mostly to vent

Placing my angst on paper was a way in which my anger was spent

When I was emotionally distraught, I would write

In the process I would calm down and gain some insight

When I look back at my early writing, the common themes appear

To be those of anger, disappointment, anxiety and fear

To a melancholy person the writing seems to belong

Someone in whose life everything was wrong

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As I continued to write, I turned the emphasis away

From myself, and wrote about my experiences from day to day

I would observe, hear or read something and file it away in my mind

To be retrieved when the opportunity to write I could find

Thus my writing became an informal commentary

On the state of the world around me

My experiences as a physician occupied a prominent place

But my verses still had a rather serious face

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Initially I wrote for myself but as I continued to write

A hypothetical reader I kept in sight

I wrote what I thought someone would like to read

(Is it surprising that the fictional reader was a strict teacher indeed?)

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As I have continued in my writing practice I’ve found

My own distinctive voice, and in a turnaround

I am writing for myself again, but this time it is different

Instead of writing from discomfort I write from contentment

I feel, I taste, I breathe the joy in my words as I write

I do not care if I get the craft of poetry right

Writing is meditative, and writing is a pleasure

My inner growth as a writer is something I treasure