Writing a paper is a single action, indistinguishable moves
more comparable to floating down a river than building a bridge.
Nonetheless, as this assignment's deadline looms before me,
I must stoically endure the task,
as Noah with his ridiculed ark,
or Atlas with his globular burden,
or perhaps only as a child lugging his sled back up the snowy hill.

Because starting out is so difficult for me,
the less distractions I allow myself at the beginning the better.
It takes time before the concentration really takes hold.
If my mood is not exactly fitted to a concentrated dose of verbal intensity,
I must exploit the physical aspects of the situation.
Often aiding the process are various bodily movements,
including (but not limited to) neck aerobics, paper clip acrobatics,
pacing, arm flapping, nose wiggling, lip biting, throat gurgling,
chair bouncing, handstand walking, plate spinning, and toe typing.

I try not to allow myself the freedom of experimenting with all of them at one sitting,
But sometimes I do have a little too much contained energy
that cannot be expelled through the subdued actions of
gentle key-stroking and mild page-turning.