I'm Back Poem by Mike Smith

Well I haven't been writing
And I ask myself sometimes, why not?
There are plenty of reasons (or maybe excuses) that I can come up with
None of them seem so pertinent that they should bring the system to a complete stop
The best I can come up with
without trying to trick myself into believing it that is
Is that maybe I don't need to right now
You see, writing, for me, isn't always just a hobby or an exercise
It's a venue
For advancement
For growth
For discovery
And expansion of the mind
Cementing and defining of the self
And since I find myself in a situation that suits me
That venue, it would seem, has become obsoleted by my current state
And even in writing that I know it to be ridiculous
What is the stoppage of growth other than the launch point of death
If you're not advancing yourself, expanding yourself, hashing out your opinions and standpoints in your mind
Then aren't you just standing still?
Resisting our most rawest and valuable of instincts to adapt
To evolve

Yes I can feel it coming back now already
Even in just this short spewing of lines I've made above
I can hear the voice returning
A whisper maybe
Hard to make out and not nearly as in tune or in sync as it has been in times past when the words were flowing like rain in the gutters during a storm
But it's there
Peaking through
Reminding me that I can do this
Write
Should do this even
Need to do this more likely
Essential
Not an option but an obligation

It won't come back all at once
It never has before
When I take a break from writing and come back into it, it tends to happen slowly
But the wordsmith in me is reemerging
And I know it to be true
Because it's happened in the past
He will teach me things about myself that I didn't know
Remind of things that I'd somehow forgotten
Change my perspective and enhance my outlook
Make me more observant
More attentive
A better form of the person I am
Or a newer form of the person I was
Improved
Advanced
And going forward once more

I'm back