Procrastination, Poetry, and Prose

Note: I'm rather proud that I created that alliteration. It was going to be Procrastination, Poetry, and Parsley, but then I realized that everyone who loves parsley and sees this post was going to be disappointed. And I wouldn't want to wish that fate on anyone.

In the past week, my novel has reached 30,000 words. I've been working on it for several months now and I'm pleased to say that it is halfway done. I'm going to finish it with the help of Camp NaNo.
However, I have been procrastinating a lot lately. I've discovered that the root of procrastination is the luxury of time--you only procrastinate when you have enough time and can afford to do so. With my school's weird spring break, I've had lots of time to wander around my house and read and go on the Internet. While my daily 500 words usually takes me about a half-hour, recently it's taken me over an hour.

Last night, I decided to take action. (That sounds so official, doesn't it?) I sat down at my desk, and used Write or Die for a while. Forty-five minutes later, I had 1,800 more words. I'm planning on using it much more often, as I'd forgotten about it in the aftermath of NaNoWriMo.

  Here's a poem I wrote a few months ago, called The Silence of a Tree:

A tree stands alone,
weathered color, pockmarked
skin waiting
for a slow, silent death
his hollows have been forgotten,
his achievements erased,
Holding tired branches
dragging memories
still clinging to his sorry bark,
as the world around him
crumbles, ricocheting, melting
into dust,
still the tree stands tall
waiting for the spark-colored sky to end

the silence of a tree
remains