on inspiration and writer's block

Taking a look at Guen's blog, (Crimson Flow), she mentioned another blogger's challenge of writing about what inspires us. Since I'm struggling in that very department, in terms of my writing (whether poetry, lissa's blog, or melissa's blog that I actually DID start yesterday), I thought I would try to write about Inspiration.

First and foremost, my background in literature is the number one source of my inspiration...specifically the English Renaissance and the 20th Century American writers. The thing is, that's pretty damn intimidating. It sometimes stifles your own creativity when you are constantly comparing yourself to the greatest in your genre. Funnily enough, reading some of the other SL bloggers has also been intimidating.

...hmmm, this is coming off as anti-inspiration, but then, that's where I'm at...

Friends and family know I write, so every few years, someone gives me a blank journal as a gift. As you might guess, I've got a half-dozen, half-filled journals. The small notebook I carry in my purse, in case inspiration strikes, is more likely to contain the latest list for the grocery store as it is my latest observation or line of poetry.

BUT...what inspires me...literature, art, music, acts of kindness, the moonrise and a star-filled sky, horseback riding, the way a red-tailed hawk stalks his prey, coyotes yipping in the middle of the night, watching a thunderstorm build to the west and then race my direction, my son, my past, my present, and my future. *sighs* And, yet, I have writer's block? How ironic.

peace