*THIS *
*THIS *
so you want to be a writer?
Charles Bukowski, 1920 - 1994
if it doesn’t come bursting out of you
in spite of everything,
don’t do it.
unless it comes unasked out of your
heart and your mind and your mouth
and your gut,
don’t do it.
if you have to sit for hours
staring at your computer screen
or hunched over your
typewriter
searching for words,
don’t do it.
if you’re doing it for money or
fame,
don’t do it.
if you’re doing it because you want
women in your bed,
don’t do it.
if you have to sit there and
rewrite it again and again,
don’t do it.
if it’s hard work just thinking about doing it,
don’t do it.
if you’re trying to write like somebody
else,
forget about it.
if you have to wait for it to roar out of
you,
then wait patiently.
if it never does roar out of you,
do something else.
if you first have to read it to your wife
or your girlfriend or your boyfriend
or your parents or to anybody at all,
you’re not ready.
don’t be like so many writers,
don’t be like so many thousands of
people who call themselves writers,
don’t be dull and boring and
pretentious, don’t be consumed with self-
love.
the libraries of the world have
yawned themselves to
sleep
over your kind.
don’t add to that.
don’t do it.
unless it comes out of
your soul like a rocket,
unless being still would
drive you to madness or
suicide or murder,
don’t do it.
unless the sun inside you is
burning your gut,
don’t do it.
when it is truly time,
and if you have been chosen,
it will do it by
itself and it will keep on doing it
until you die or it dies in you.
there is no other way.
and there never was.
Amen !!!
ReplyDeleteThanks Zara Altair
The "few" of us on Google Plus that are Sincerely
#Transparent "Ponder" too Long ... The Ship leaves The Port ...
This is So true! Great reminder Zara Altair! I lose thoughts typing or writing it out by hand, so it becomes work and not enjoyable, yet I still flow naturally when I pick up my brushes and paints. It definitely has to flow smoothly in front of the keyboard or writing tablet, for one to be able to be a writer.
ReplyDeleteTim Longwell I was thinking that this wonderful poem applies to all the arts. :)
ReplyDeleteZara Altair I totally agree!
ReplyDelete❤️Tim Longwell
ReplyDeleteSo in other words, don't do it! Honestly, there are too many would-be writers these days; would-be because they think it's easy, or they think it's fun. It isn't. It's a mental sickness. Nobody knows what it means to be a writer and nobody really cares, other than other writers. I never cared for fame or fortune. All that I look for is readers, because writing is a conversation, a way to express that which can be expressed in no other way, but that is more important than anything else in life. It comes roaring forth from me. It consumes me. But it's the silence that I find unbearable. The unrequited love of the story I am telling. Writing is a sad and lonely life. Don't do it.
ReplyDelete