Self Soothing Poem by Suzanne Hayasaki

I like to write poems at night
To help me forget the stress of the day,
Put deadlines to rest,
Get students’ questions out of my head
So I can just be.

I like to write poems on the train
In between stations
Frantically tapping on my phone
Trying to get the rhythm right
Focusing on the rhyme scheme
Writing something light and breezy
To block out the suffocating crowd
So I can just breathe.

I like to write poems in the morning
Before I finish my first cup of coffee
While my dreams are still swimming behind my eyes.
The restless, unruly thoughts that had haunted me
Have come together in a pleasing pattern
And taken on a meaning that I can now see clearly
So that I can just release it
Effortlessly.

I like to write poems.
It pleases me.
It amuses me.
It soothes me.

It keeps me balanced.
It widens my perspective.
It opens my mind to new types of connections.
It harnesses emotions that would otherwise gnaw at me
And gets them to run on the treadmill of creative energy
That fuels the compositions that seem to write themselves
Because they, too, want to be.