Writer’s Blocks

Identity & Reflection
Written by Michael Heavener

Writer's Block #3
Stinkbug on my keyboard.
My fingers hover
Carefully—
I'm glad it's not a spider.


Writer's Block #8
I have something I would like to write
So I take out my well-worn journal

Ten colored pens sit on my desk

Before I start, I test them.
Scribbled swirls on scrap paper.
Four have ink that's all dried up.
Three won't click—lost springs?
Two are leaking messes.

Finally finding one that works
I pinch it with my fingers and hover
Over the open journal's empty page

But I've forgotten what it was
I want to write


Writer's Block #10
I don't worry anymore
About using pencil or pen
To write on blank paper.

No, I don't fear pencils,
Or paper at all.

Now my anxiety comes
From typing pixels
Onto blank white screens.

Michael Heavener

Michael Heavener writes anecdotal and gently humorous poetry and stories as a way of staying grounded in his roots in Washington State, and in his long-standing love of history, trains, and adventure. He has been published in "Purr and Yowl: An Anthology of Poetry About Cats," Raven Chronicles’ "Humor, Humor, Humor," Crosswalk’s "Praise Reports," and the RASP anthology "Here, There, and Everywhere." His poems have also been exhibited as framed art in the "We Are Here" gallery show. Looking ahead, Michael plans a poetry chapbook exploring imagined “it might have been” backstories for biblical figures who appear only briefly in scripture before vanishing from the record. He is currently writing a historical fiction novel set in the late eighteenth century, following a centaur who rises to command her own merchant ship.

https://www.heavenr.com/poems/
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