A Poet's Weary Journey

I'm sorry I've been so crap, lately,
I guess I'm in that kind of phase,
Nothing I write seems good enough,
And I don't deserve your praise,

When I first started writing poems,
I just wanted it to sound good,
But I learnt more as I continued,
And I thought I better understood,

But alas, it had the reverse effect,
I over-analyzed and over-thought,
I wanted to be smart and clever,
And be the Rudyard Kipling sort,

So I read great poet's poems,
Mainly Kipling and Alexander Pope,
I hoped I could implement their work,
But that was such a foolish hope,

And I've tried to just write,
Like the way I did before,
But after reading and writing so much,
I need my work to be much more,

More than just sounding good,
I needed clever configurations,
I needed great rhythms and rhymes,
I needed greater complications,

Even now when I look back,
Some poems seem like wasted times,
Boring, ordinary stories,
With boring, ordinary rhymes,

And yet others I can look back on,
With pride and a smile upon my face,
Were they the best I had to offer,
Oh, I hope that's not the case.