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How Do You Feel About Waiting?

If you want to be a published author, get used to waiting. You can wait for up to six months to hear back from queries. Even if you take the indie publishing path, you’ll wait on cover designs, edits and approval of your uploaded files. I used to hate waiting.
Okay, I’m still not a huge fan of it waiting. But I’ve learned that staying busy is the best remedy for the angst and anxiety that comes from waiting.

Sometimes, we wait with dread. Other times, it’s more of an anxious anticipation. It depends on whether we’re waiting for test results from a biopsy or a pregnancy test.

This short poem tries (and mostly fails) to capture a bit of that turmoil.

Waiting

When I’m anticipating
A certain answer
Something cringes
While I’m waiting

The moment tension’s abating
Over that caller ID
Or a specific email
That I’ve been awaiting

There’s no sense understating
The emotional swirl
When the answer comes
After weeks of waiting

My heart’s palpitating
Chest tightens as I
Hold my breath to read
The message I’m awaiting

As the software’s updating
I imagine the
Perfect answer
The one I’ve been awaiting

To hear
To see
To read
To receive

It makes all that waiting
Worth it in the end
Of so much aggravating
Waiting

This week, I’m anxiously awaiting the arrival of some long-time friends who are spending the weekend as our house guests. This couple loves us with the heart and hands of Jesus. I know I’ll be crying when the weekend ends, but I’ll be encouraged, too.

How about you? What are you waiting for right now? What emotions are stirring while you wait?

3 thoughts on “How Do You Feel About Waiting?”

  1. “This short poem tries (and mostly fails) to capture a bit of that turmoil.”
    Why the words in brackets? You may not have achieved what you wanted with it, but does the reader need to know that? It seems to me that telling readers ahead of time that a work isn’t that good sets them up with an unnecessary prejudice which may hamper their own experience and enjoyment of your work. [unsolicited advice ends]

    I quite liked the stanza “As the software’s updating / I imagine the / Perfect answer / The one I’ve been awaiting” – because who hasn’t been there?

    1. The parenthetical was more an indication that words often fail to accurately relate the scope of emotional impact than a warning that it wasn’t any good. If I thought the poem was subpar, I wouldn’t have published it 🙂 Explanation ended.
      I’m glad some part of the verse connected with your experience.

      1. Ah, well, that’s words for you, isn’t it? It’s kind of weird, when you think about it, that we use markings representing sounds to convey emotions to other people. And yet somehow it works.

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