Just discovered Billy Collins's "Advice to Writers." Lovely poem. An excerpt:

When you find your way back home
. . .
you will behold in the light of dawn
the immaculate altar of your desk,
a clean surface in the middle of a clean world.
From a small vase, sparkling blue, lift
a yellow pencil, the sharpest of the bouquet,
and cover pages with tiny sentences
like long rows of devoted ants
that followed you in from the woods.

From Sailing Alone Around the Room