I Have Dedicated My Life . . .

I Have Dedicated My Life To Writing Poetry

I've been writing poetry for 30 years now. Well really more like 1 year if you count the actual time spent writing. A long time ago a poet named Paul Durcan told me to write every day, even if only for 20 minutes. I decided 20 minutes was a spurious amount of time to spend writing. I wouldn't insult poetry with such a paltry assignation of time. So I can't say I've written poetry for 20 minutes every day for 30 years, even if you only count weekdays. If I had though, I would have written 219,150 minutes worth of poetry, factoring in 7.5 Leap Days. Doesn't factoring in sound good, I hope it's correct usage. That's 91 40-hour weeks plus 1 hour and 15 mins left over if I'm not mistaken and I possibly am. The point is: that's damn close to 2 full years of poetry-writing, given 3 weeks vacation time per year. And if you use the more general 35-hour week, you get 2 straight years no holidays-or with holidays 2 years and 6 weeks again presuming I'm not mistaken which is more than possible. Mind you I'm making these calculations based on 20 minutes a day 7 days a week because I believe that's the way Paul intended it, that's the kind of guy he was. He told me once that he worked only one full day in his life: as a reporter in the Irish Press. I think he meant a day straight though as he went in to resign the next day that may count for something. But whatever way you look at it, 40-hr week or the more relaxed 35, that's a lot of poetry writing. Okay so 30 years is also a lot of years. Fair point. That's the time it takes to pay off a mortgage on a house. A 30-year mortgage that is. But if you think of it, it's not so long because the time spent actually paying off the mortgage is relatively short. It can't be more than say 5 minutes a month. I mean how long does it take to pull out a checkbook? Okay maybe a little longer: There can be psychological barriers & domestic turmoil. But seriously, maybe 5 minutes to find your checkbook, 5 minutes to find the bank's demand letter, 5 minutes to wince, 5 minutes to write the check, 5 minutes to wince some more (did you ever notice some is almost an anagram for more except it would be mose instead of more?), 5 minutes to find an envelope & I'm not going to count the time looking for a stamp or going to the post office because:

You may just have a stamp handy
You may have stumbled across a stamp in the course of all your other fumblings
You were probably going to the post office anyway or at least saved the mortgage payment letter until you were
You may not have used the double time to wince or even if you did you may not have used the full 5 minutes each time because let's face it that's a lot of wince more of a wrench or a cramp even so you could use that freed-up time to find or even buy the stamp (presuming you were in the post office).

So there you go: 30 minutes maximum a month to pay a 30-year mortgage-hey and I'm 30 this is getting spooky.... That's 6 hours a year and 180 hours over the life of the mortgage as they say which amounts to 4½ working weeks at 40 hours per week or 5 full weeks and 1 hour at 35 hours a week. So don't scoff at 2 years writing poetry! It hands down beats just a little over a month to pay a 30-year mortgage. And it's not nearly so consuming of resources, in any way shape or form no matter how much light or heat you use or how much whiskey you drink.

But anyway, I never took Paul Durcan's advice. For most of those 30 years, writing poetry has been a pretty desultory activity for me. That's changed in the last year. Now I write every day, even if only for a few minutes on the run or in the car or on the way to a neighbor's backyard to pick up Clio from a birthday party or whatever. Still, my total time spent over 30 years is probably less than 1 year of 35-hour, no maybe 40-hour weeks. To be fair, I can't complain. Today my book is ranked 997,731st on Amazon.com. If I was a piano-player-that doesn't sound right: If I is a piano-player-that's not right either… Were I a pianist, I'd have been practicing every day for 6 hours. Over 30 years that pretty damn near amounts to-30 years. I'd be off the poetry charts at Amazon. People would be queueing…queuing … qeu… lining up to hear me play. I'd know all the Halls - Carnegie, Joan, Faneuil, Royal Albert. I'd wear only dicky-bows. But anyway (finally) I'd say I write now for about an hour a day. That means in the course of 1 month I could pay off two 30 year mortgages. And they say poetry doesn't pay. That blows my mind.