On Writing - (or, not)

I've been creating poetry for several years now, and I have shared a lot of my pieces with the general public. A few have been published in print, recorded as songs, or both. However, many many more have never managed to climb out of my drafts box and into the completed folder. Of course, there are many factors that contribute to this, but the hugest one is the feeling that finishing a piece isn't worth the effort: someone else has already written on that topic, after all, and why should I expend energy on something that won't be perfect or entirely original, anyways? This line of reasoning forgets that there is value in the creative process, and that writing is as much about examining and organizing my own thoughts as it is about sharing them with others. 

I started this blog as incentive to myself to choose to write more consistently - to make the time to work through the drafts file and make more of my creations share-ready. One month and only one post in, I wrote this short free-verse as an expression of my ongoing internal fight to write. 

(Sidenote: this goes so far beyond just my interaction with my writing. It's about how I think: about how I interact with the world around me. It's about choosing to notice the beauty that is always a part of the ordinary, and recognizing that emotions are worthwhile, even if they seem awfully inconvenient sometimes.)

Pragdealist

Two sides fight inside my soul

A poet, one – the other,

Charming, simple cynic

Rational, restricted realist

Wrestles daily

Dreamer, visions raw and restless

Callous, cryptic, calculated

Strives to strangle

Perceptive, reflexive, empathetic

Entrenched in aspirations of excellence,

Perfectionism, effective,

Quenches senses yearning for expression.