"The Carolina Pen and Quill", the state literary magazine, sends a letter to Howard. The magazine is initiating a new poetry section for native North Carolina poets. They would like to commission him to write an original poem for the page. Some time passes and everyone is wondering how Howard's poem is coming along. The reality of it is that Howard is suffering from writer's block. Sam comes by Howard's office and reminds him of the deadline for the poem. Now his writer's block gets even worse. After hearing that he isn't eating, Aunt Bee brings Howard some food. But her being around is distracting Howard. Howard's friends start to realize the pressure he is under. Howard goes out to the woods to get some inspiration. Goober comes by and tries to give Howard a pep talk, but Howard just wants him to leave. Later, Howard believes he's a failure and tells this to Sam. Howard winds up writing a poem about failure and it gets published.