A poem begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a lovesickness. ~Robert Frost Poetry begins and ends in silence. And as Frost suggests, sometimes, like a lump in the throat, that silence can be painful—a kind of sickness and unspeakable yearning for home, for love, for comfort. However, silence, or not writing, tends to be especially painful for writers, which is why there are so many articles and books on how to deal with writer’s block. But the painful truth is that when, as writers, we can’t write, we can become neurotic, anxious, depressed, or in extreme cases, even suicidal. Suffering How can I be a writer, if I don’t write? That’s a nail-biter question for any writer. And we’re known to do just about anything either to write or to cope with not writing. We might berate ourselves and try to force our creativity with a swift kick of self-criticism. We might tell ourselves that what we need is regimen and discipline and then sit down to write, only to find ourselves even more frustrated with our inability to do so. Or perhaps we lapse into self-pity or self-hatred. Or maybe we stay as busy as possible. We might even numb our pain with alcohol, drugs, sex, food—anything that might alleviate the gnawing emptiness and terrible doubts that come with not writing. Suffice it to say, as creative people we have hundreds of creative ways to torture ourselves when we’re not writing. Listening The poet doesn’t invent. He listens. ~Jean Cocteau The real kicker to our suffering is that silence, however painful, is absolutely necessary to poetry. You simply cannot write without silence and stillness, without the inner solitude that demands a deep and intent listening to one’s feelings. Sometimes, poetry is not words at all, but a silence that can either rip us apart or provide the balm of healing. Ultimately, this difference between suffering and healing is the difference between torturing ourselves for not writing and sitting still in that sometimes awful silence. So, what happens when we think less about writing and more about listening to the silence and what it’s telling us? Read the rest of the article at poetryNprogress.