The Reluctant Writer! Poem by Denis Martindale

One solemn day, the writer woke,
Upon his warm, warm bed,
Aware God gave a gentle poke
And get him up instead...
The writer clutched the blankets close
And wouldn't let them go
And God despised the choice he chose
When that young man said, 'No! '

'Alright! ' said God, 'I don't need you...
I'll do this by Myself! '
Then stood beside him in full view,
Got paper from the shelf...
Without a pen, the words appeared,
Upon the floating page,
While God, in deep thought, stroked His beard,
Considering each stage...

The writer peeped at such a sight,
Still trembling all the while,
Yet God ignored the man in fright,
His poem made Him smile...
And once God finished, He turned round
And pointed to His verse,
At this, the poet simply frowned,
As if things could get worse...

The poet's laptop was turned on
And then the scanner, too,
Then God's new poem put upon
To scan it through and through...
The text was copied, then emailed,
The publisher replied,
Despite the fact the poet failed
And felt real bad inside...

The poet rose from sleepytime,
Got washed and dressed and then,
He wrote a poem so sublime
As if on top again...
God read the poem, gave advice,
The poet's draft ignored,
Till finally it turned out nice,
Then published as reward...

From that day on, the poet gained,
By listening to God's word,
As if at last God had him trained
By what he'd seen and heard...
Together, as a brand new team,
The poet served God well,
No longer clinging to a dream
That saved no-one from Hell...

In time, of course, life meets its end,
The poet passed away,
Yet with God as His faithful friend,
He lived for God each day...
When God helps us with poetry,
Each poet must succeed,
Then leave this world a legacy,
To prove it blessed indeed...


Denis Martindale, February 2016.