writing poetry is so flipping hard

[Achebe]

Hopkins spoke of the Parnassian and the inspired. Parnassian is what any half-decent poet can knock up at will, though the process can take from anywhere between a few minutes to a few days.
But inspired poetry is purely a function of variables beyond the poet's control, since inspiration can't be forced, but rather comes about as a result of complex interaction of hundreds of psychological variables.
So inspired poetry is flippin hard to write.
I was going to launch into a rambling account of how I came to be a poetic pretender, but I'll do that in verse some other time.