{"id":137990915,"date":"2026-04-03T11:00:40","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T16:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/?p=137990915"},"modified":"2026-04-09T10:58:25","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T15:58:25","slug":"technically-a-writer-day-3-of-national-poetry-month","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jahangiri.us\/2020\/technically-a-writer-day-3-of-national-poetry-month\/","title":{"rendered":"Technically, a Writer: Day 3 of National Poetry Month"},"content":{"rendered":"

A “bonus post” since I jumped the gun before some of the prompts were posted! So here’s the second challenge, to combine the following:<\/p>\n

“Open _____ ” and “a poem in which a profession or vocation is described differently than it typically is considered to be.”<\/p>\n

Technically, a Writer<\/h2>\n

Open chat.
\nEnjoy the cameraderie of writers.
\nUntil the conversation turns
\nto royalties and contracts,
\npublishers and agents…
\n“Have you been published lately?”
\nThey ask, to be polite.<\/p>\n

Consider yanking the modem cord from the wall.
\n“Line noise.” (Lame excuse.)<\/p>\n

Then realize that it’s really all
\na matter of perspective. Tell them
\n“Yes,” of course. Tell them
\nthat your last book (you’ve lost count)
\nwas published (because it was)
\nin more languages than those
\nof the famous author they adore \u2014
\ntwenty-six, you think. Maybe twenty-eight.<\/p>\n

Five million books sold, worldwide.
\n(So far.) But who’s counting.<\/p>\n

Fifteen hundred, two thousand dollars
\neach, and readers seem happy \u2014
\nyou get paid, right as rain,
\nevery two weeks. You’d tell them
\nhow much, but they’re already green
\nwith envy. “Best part of the deal?”
\nyou say, “Each reader gets a free PC
\nwith every book.”<\/p>\n

It’s all a matter of perspective.
\nMine.<\/p>\n

Inspiration<\/h2>\n

Another true story. When I was in college, studying Rhetoric & Writing, I dreamed of writing novels for a living. Or getting paid to write – I’d settle for that. After a few years in computer operations and systems engineering, during which I suffered from a massive case of “imposter syndrome,” I was tapped for a job as a technical writer. I didn’t know what that was<\/em>, but it had the word “writer” in it and it wasn’t a demotion. I write well, I’m technically adept, curious, and a quick learner. I retired, in 2020, after almost 30 years of documenting hardware and software. Much of it was behind-the-scenes work, creating unglamorous but auditor-required internal systems documentation in fields like oil & gas and airline industries, until I went to work for Compaq\/HP and wrote User Guides, online Windows Help, and eventually returned to a more technical field – data science, mining tens of thousands of product reviews for customer experience insights.<\/p>\n

I have also published children’s books, anthologies of short stories and poetry, non-fiction articles, and blogs.\u00a0Now, I am President and Webmaster of the Poetry Society of Texas and most of my writing is focused on poetry. But really, when someone asks me, “What do you write?” it’s easier to say what I don’t write. I don’t write about finance. Math was never my favorite subject.<\/p>\n

This poem was an actual conversation I had in the Writers’ Ink RoundTable on GEnie in the 1990s \u2014 back when we still had modems that plugged into the wall. Probably at 14,400 baud. My books never bore my name, but that’s a blessing in disguise – I still got paid, “right as rain, every two weeks!” and didn’t have to field support questions. Ironically, a good chunk of my time, now, is spent fielding support questions from writers. About Windows and Word, self-publishing platforms, book covers, websites and blogs, copyright issues…<\/p>\n

And lets not forget “how to answer a call on my Samsung Galaxy phone<\/a>.” I’m hoping that, for once<\/a>, you’re here for the poetry.<\/p>\n

About the Prompts & Challenge for April<\/h2>\n

See\u00a0Apricots: a Tanka Encompassing Three Prompts<\/a>\u00a0for the prompts I\u2019ll be using (if I use any at all) this month. To the extent possible, I\u2019m determined to combine all three, plus the\u00a0Blogging A to Z Challenge<\/a>, each day. That said, I reserve the right not to \u2013 despite my conviction that creativity thrives when challenged to overcome constraints.<\/p>\n

I recommend reading the daily posts at each of these sites to get a fuller picture of the prompts, though I will summarize them here so you get the general idea:<\/p>\n