Monday, March 1, 2010

'The Thirty Six Sounds of a Writer'

This is my thirty six sounds poem for English.

The Thirty-Six Sounds of a Writer


by Marc Hansen



1. Flipping the stained, paper pages of your favorite book for inspiration


2. The squeak as you lean back in your chair, feeling confident and ready to write


3. The air conditioner cycling as you blankly stare at your typewriter for the first thirty minutes


4. Endless thoughts of doubt and insecurity running through your mind


5. Sweat dripping down your burning forehead


6. Thoughts of your worst critics beating your corpse to a pulp


7. Thoughts of you beating your corpse to a pulp


8. Explicit language


9. The sudden click of the typewriter as you type that explicit language


10. Your stomach’s growls, as you feel a fleeting moment of accomplishment, and a need for a 9:10 a.m. snack break


11. The smack of your lips, as you tear through your third croissant that morning


12. The muscles in your thumb having a spasm, while you flip through each channel on the television


13. The blood gushing out of your skin as you rip open the hangnail you’ve been picking at for weeks


14. The phone taunting you with its rings, though you know it can only be your mother


15. Your mother’s manic barks about how you should get a job and a girlfriend


16. Imagining yourself repeatedly slamming the phone on her, as you listen obediently


17. Feeling your chin hairs poke through your skin, as you wonder when the last time you shaved was


18. Your apartment owner’s fists pounding their way through the front door, demanding the rent for your shithole East Side apartment


19. The screaming guitar in the Velvet Underground’s “Heroin,” as you do some


20. Letting the light shine through the creaky windows, as you decide to get back to work


21. Hearing the blue jays sing from Central Park, as the subway growls from underneath


22. The summer sun ruining your “Life is Good” t-shirt with your armpit’s sweat


23. The light bulb above your head flickering on and blowing out the building’s electricity


24. A revelation


25. The ink pounding your words onto a clean, white sheet of paper


26. Typing the Great American Novel for the next 3 years


27. Upgrading to a slick, stylish, new computer


28. Getting a publishing deal, and 20% of the profits!


29. Impressing Oprah with your beautiful balance of satire and seriousness


30. Thirty million people flipping through the clean, white pages of your hardcover


31. Bathing yourself with 100 dollar bills in your new, golden bathtub


32. Waking up on the couch, wearing your worn out superhero pajama pants with the hole in the back


33. Discovering that your roommate taped the entirety of your mid-afternoon nap (apparently you talk in your sleep)


34. Devouring your fourth croissant that morning


35. Peeling through a banana, as you stare at the typewriter


36. Typing, just typing, and finally getting the hang of it

1 comment:

  1. So Marc. I'm commenting. And shunning Mr. Bindschadler for not doing so himself. Well, not really. But mentally, I am throwing tasteless and un-toasted white bread slices at the back of his head.

    Your poem is pretty accurate. Except for the whole heroin thing. But OTHERWISE. I guess it would be more accurate for someone who was actually a writer.

    This is a horrible comment. I'm going to stop embarrassing myself. Nehh, I'm going to go read your other blogs. BYE :)

    ReplyDelete