My Writing: Writing in the Dark (Sestina Poem)

This is a poem I wrote last semester about the written word. In order to challenge myself (because I intentionally like making my life difficult), I chose to write a sestina poem, where the last word of each line is repeated in each stanza but in a different order. It's hard to explain, but once you look at the poem, you'll see what I mean. The hardest part of this type of poem is making the word fit at the end of the sentence in a believable way.

Writing in the Dark

 

It’s always at the beginning of the night

that his thoughts begin to run wild and words

come more easily, flowing from hand to pen.

He has tried to write in the morning but there is no silence.

There are too many demanding noises, too much bright light

and so it is in darkness that he always writes.

 

On his brand new computer, the man writes,

his fingers slipping on the yet unused keys in the dark of night.

The shadows are strong this evening, they are stealing the light,

or are they the demons of his past come to haunt his words?

He listens. For something. For anything. But there is only silence.

The man closes his computer and grabs a pen.

 

Beautifully constructed, trusty, bronze, perfect grip, his pen

has never failed him when he writes.

He likes the sound of pen on paper in the silence.

It seems as if hours have passed in the night,

and still he has not written a single word.

Looking at the clock, it is still several hours ‘til there is light.

His lined notepad glares blankly at him in the dull light.

How long has he been holding this pen?

How long has he been pretending that the words

have been coming to him? That he actually writes?

For months, he has been staring out the window at night,

but it is hard to pretend when alone and in silence.

 

It is hard to pretend when there is too much silence.

The man has never feared the light,

but now he fears he may run out of night.

His fingers firmly grip his barely-used pen,

hoping to squeeze out any inspiration to write.

All the man wants are beautiful words.

 

Unexpectedly there’s a spark and they come to him – the words.

The ones he has been waiting for all his life in silence.

The ink flows onto the paper, the sound is soothing. He writes

for once unconcerned about the upcoming daylight.

Nothing can stop the man and his pen.

He knows it will be the first time he writes beyond the night.

 

As the man writes his precious words,

he no longer fears the night, nor its companion, silence.

He sees himself in a new light: a writer; he is his pen.

 

Thanks for reading it! I hope you liked it!

 

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