Sestina Day 99: What I’ve Learned

My odyssey is almost at an end
This self inflicted challenge almost done
What have I learned in these last hundred days?
Has doing this made me a better poet?
How many people have I irritated?
And do I still like making up sestinas?

Before this I had written three sestinas
And every time I thought they’d never end
But people liked them, were not irritated.
They weren’t to hard, I seemed to get them done
With ease, but did that make me a real poet?
What if I did it for 100 days?

I’d meant to set a schedule up for days
For daily writing, it could be sestinas
Or anything: I’d work at being a poet
But I would get distracted in the end:
My daily writing just did not get done
And left me petulant and irritated.

So maybe I was mostly irritated
When well, exactly nine and ninety days
Ago, I said “Right, that is it. I’m done
With easy targets, 100 sestinas!
I’ll see this project through right to the end
And then I’ll be a bloody expert poet!”

But has it helped me be a better poet?
I’ve learned that even when I’m irritated
Or tired, or busy, even at the end
Of all my patience, I can fill my days
With keywords, keep on pumping out sestinas,
And even if it’s crap, be glad it’s done.

And what else has this mad adventure done?
Well, I’ve not wondered if I was a poet:
I’ve been too busy writing these sestinas!
And though I know sometimes I’ve irritated
My wife, and had my dull and dismal days,
I’m kind of sorry this is at an end.

Now my sestinas are so nearly done.
One left, and then the end. Am I a poet?
Or have I irritated you for days?