Tuesday, December 21, 2021

So you want to be a writer?


I am extremely inspired to write right now.  As Charles Bukowski states in his poem named, "so you want to be a writer?" I have the poems here so you can read it if you haven't already. This poem resonates so much with me because this is what its like for me, this is what it has always been like.

"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."

I write because I have too, it flows through me and onto the page.  I can't even help it and honestly I don't want to. I do plan to share it but only because I feel that it needs to be shared regardless of whatever happens.  I don't share everything either I might add.  I write because its in my blood and it runs through my veins.  It's the most wonderful thing to do especially when I'm sad and blue.  My pain, my feelings, my overabundance of emotions are transpired into words.  I never want it to end.  I always want to be able to write and fly on a whim, take a ride on the words and feel ok again.  The words will forever be the thing that falls right out of me.