Talent is what they say
you have after the novel
is published and favorably
reviewed. Beforehand what
you have is a tedious
delusion, a hobby like knitting.
Work is what you have done
after the play is produced
and the audience claps.
Before that friends keep asking
when you are planning to go
out and get a job.
Genius is what they know you
had after the third volume
of remarkable poems. Earlier
they accuse you of withdrawing,
ask why you don’t have a baby,
call you a bum.
The reason people want M.F.A.’s,
take workshops with fancy names
when all you can really
learn is a few techniques,
typing instructions and some-
body else’s mannerisms
is that every artist lacks
a license to hang on the wall
like your optician, your vet
proving you may be a clumsy sadist
whose fillings fall into the stew
but you’re certified a dentist.
The real writer is one
who really writes. Talent
is an invention like phlogiston
after the fact of fire.
Work is its own cure. You have to
like it better than being loved.
End of the poem
15 random poems
- Individuality
- The First Part: Sonnet 2 – I know that all beneath the moon decays by William Drummond
- Frogs Eat Butterflies, Snakes Eat Frogs, Hogs Eat Snakes, Men Eat Hogs by Wallace Stevens
- Love’s Fitfulness poem – Alfred Austin
- Oh Wert Thou In The Cauld Blast by Robert Burns
- Юнна Мориц – Большой секрет для маленькой компании
- Ольга Высотская – Здравствуй, праздник
- Braga by Walid Saba
- For This
- The Dawn
- The Chestnut Casts His Flambeaux poem – A. E. Housman
- Summon Me by Walid Saba
- There is a Community of Spirit by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- Eclogue:–A Bit O’ Sly Coorten by William Barnes
- Now List to my Morning’s Romanza. by Walt Whitman
Some external links:
Duckduckgo.com – the alternative in the US
Quant.com – a search engine from France, and also an alternative, at least for Europe
Yandex – the Russian search engine (it’s probably the best search engine for image searches).
