Deliverance

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​Adrift in the ocean
No sense of direction
A​​mong the waves
And the sky and solitude

Dawn has arrived. Ahoy!
Land has been sighted
The wind draws me closer
Mountains come to view

The sparkle of a brook
Slipping in and out
Signs of habitation
Smoke from ​the ​chimneys

My heart leaps out...
Only a matter of hours
For my deliverance
Patience, my heart...

To be safe, on firm earth
Free from the rocking sea...
Land, beloved land,
The destination, ultimate.

Suddenly the wind changes
It begins to blow out
Dragging me away
Farther from the land

And as I watch helpless
The brook vanishes
The mountains grow smaller
Land retreats, diminishes

My boat, rising and falling,
Driven far out into the sea...
A brief vision, a tiny possibility-
Now an unattained dream!

Between the lashing waves
And the apathetic sky...
Adrift in the ocean...
Once again-

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When you take up your tools

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They say writing is a lonely job. I have seen enough of it to agree. No one can chip in and do it for you, nor can you delegate it. You do not even want anyone to help you with it.

No one knows your story like you do. You raise it like a baby. You nurture it and care for it and prepare it for life. When it goes out to face the world, you fear if it is going to fall and get hurt.

You toil alone, for the most part. You fight your battles alone, you face your demons alone, and, win or lose, you endure alone. Friends can only stand to one side and say, 'I hear you.' They can inspire you, encourage you, motivate you but they cannot share your frustration. When you want to bang your head against the wall, you don't want them to bang it for you.

You try to see through the eyes of your characters all the time that sometimes you forget to see through your own. And you most definitely fail to see through the eyes of the real people around you.

Real problems are not problems any more unless they serve the purpose of appearing in your writing.

You force others to find their solutions, and inadvertently look for yours within your own world.

You sometimes feel the pain of your characters more than your own.

You abandon things and desert people, and feel guilty for doing so. And it's no fun feeling guilty.

Writing isn't all about writing. It isn't only about writing. It's a whole lot of things apart from it. And not all good.

But, when you take up your tools and begin to create, it makes everything worthwhile.

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