The Penniless Poet Poem by Denis Martindale

I don't always know the first line.
I wait… It turns up… I follow it…
I think of suitable rhymes…
I wait… the next set of lines arrives…
I follow them, too.
The ending is on its way…
I'm not there yet… so I continue…
I get a few more lines done…
Descriptions, visual aids, fancy phrases…
Meandering footsteps along the journey…
Then it's a full-stop moment of realisation…
Suddenly I can feel that the ending is near.
I sense it. But what is it? I wait again…
It arrives in segments… It's not quite visible…
It's not yet understood…
But I continue to follow it.
It's almost over and done with…
Yes, indeed… and then I edit and edit and edit…
Finally, I overcome… and I share it with the world…
I share it with many…
Yet no-one pays a penny…


Denis Martindale April 2020.