Enough to feel the scream

Nothing wrong with your ideas. Some of your punctuation is a little awry. I hope you don't take offense at this, but if you hope to be published one day, it will matter to editors a great deal. They often stop reading at the first error. "'s" is an indication of possession (except in the case of it's, where it indicates the missing letter(s) from 'it is' or 'it has'; the possessive of 'it' is its): it should not be used for plurals. In general the apostrophe indicates something missing (I could explain what is missing in the case of possessives but in about the 17th century we stopped bothering ever to write it). So if you are writing the contraction of 'are not' where does the apostrophe go? That's right, where the 'o' would have been. If you do punctuate a poem (and it's not obligatory) there should be a full stop at the end. Good luck with your writing, Andrew, Ewan.

In that case, keep on experimenting: but also keep on reading poetry - and not just stuff on here - classical writers, modern writers or anyone who takes your fancy. Everyone has phases where they feel their writing isn't as good as it was; that they've lost their 'poetry mojo' - to quote HaiAnh, who writes on here. It is almost always temporary, and not related to writer's block. After all, you're still writing, even if you don't like what you're producing so much. You might like to read 'The Ode Less Travelled' by Stephen Fry, who also plans never to publish his poetry, but has written a quite brilliant book about how to go about trying to write it. Ewan

Hey Andrew, just wanted to agree with the advice Ewan gave you and add some for good measure. Write for yourself - i'm not trying to be unkind, but nobody really cares if you or I or even Ewan ever write another word - except of course, you, I or Ewan. As long as writing soothes, calms, excites, stretches, amuses us - we continue. To get better you have to work at it - boring but oh so true. So true in fact that at twenty five years your senior, I've just ordered the book Ewan recommends. What use a brain that's stopped learning? You've got some great ideas and if writing pleases then continue, work to get better, read, write and read again and continue. But at the end of the day, as you say it is you who will make the final choice. Good luck, I wish you happy writing, amanda x