The human mind evolved to conserve energy. It doesn’t want to waste time trying to interpret ambiguity or confusion. When faced with such, most will give up and move on. This isn’t to say that we don’t want to be challenged, but rather we want to be challenged in a way that we desire. If the grammar and spelling in this book was off, you wouldn’t have read this far, the effort would have been too much. If I used a weird/borderline illegible font to present my poetry, it would never be read. You would take one look at it and move on…

Poems have a way of just appearing. Often they come unannounced, bursting out of the silence, screaming to be heard and written down then and there. They are brutal. They don’t negotiate. And they rarely give a second chance. Thus, I have learnt too always be open and ready. I always have something to write on with me; I sleep with a notepad under my pillow, and exercise with another close at hand. I have had the conversation with my family, letting them know that there will be times when I simply must stop whatever it is I am doing to go and write…

Good writing involves two versions of yourself working on the one piece of work: Artist-You and Editor-You. These two versions of you, must work alone as it is almost impossible to write and edit at the same time.

Firstly, Artist-You gets into the zone, isolates themselves from the world, drinks copious amounts of coffee, does a five-minute headstand, prays to the gods, then does the myriad of other things they feel is necessary for them to get the words going goodly. They write until spent, then they put the piece aside and write something else.…