Retirement is most satisfying when it embraces an artistic endeavour, as both self-analysis and art pursue emotional truth. Psychoanalysis and poetry share the same root, which is free association. The prosody of poetry is examined for its analytic meanings. There are overlaps between transference and metaphor, the unconscious and symmetry, the analytic frame and a regular frame for writing poetry. In the field of Bion's O, both analysand and writer are free of the constraints of the superego, which produces writer's block. The author shares some personal experiences as both analyst and poet.