We talked about stories and poems once. You don’t know how much it has affected me; how it made me try to recall what it was like for me in earlier days when I myself was striving to search for my own words and envying the words of everyone else. Just to let you know, that search will never end; not even for the best of us. To this day I feel a healthy amount of awe at certain pictures painted in words. What a mysterious thing language is - it sets us free and binds us so tightly at the same time. Even more mysterious is the way the gifted people manipulate it, mould it, shape it like any sculptor would until it becomes something untouchable, unfathomable, and eternal.
I would never want you to be sad and lose hope. That feeling of awe is never a bad thing. It will be your guide to finding your own awesome expression. When you find something and it touches you in spaces you thought never existed, follow it. Break it apart piece by piece, then daintily and carefully put it all back together. Do it as a child would delicately destroy and rebuild a model airplane. Even if it gets so complicated there would seem to be nothing left to do but abandon it in its shambled state, don’t give up. There is no greater danger than for you to stop once you have started. It will only weaken your resolve further and you will lose track of all you’ve already discovered.
In his book, Letters to a Young Poet, Rilke said that if in the morning you wake up and the first thing you want to do is write, then you are a writer. If in your heart you know that if you don’t write you might as well die, then you are a writer. You don’t need any fanatic, any critic, or most anyone else to tell you that you are a writer. Believe only what you feel and place conviction in what you know, and then write, write, WRITE! You’ll be surprised how easily your words will flow from your pen after that; like cool, clear, and cleansing water from the fountain of your soul.
I would never want you to be sad and lose hope. That feeling of awe is never a bad thing. It will be your guide to finding your own awesome expression. When you find something and it touches you in spaces you thought never existed, follow it. Break it apart piece by piece, then daintily and carefully put it all back together. Do it as a child would delicately destroy and rebuild a model airplane. Even if it gets so complicated there would seem to be nothing left to do but abandon it in its shambled state, don’t give up. There is no greater danger than for you to stop once you have started. It will only weaken your resolve further and you will lose track of all you’ve already discovered.
In his book, Letters to a Young Poet, Rilke said that if in the morning you wake up and the first thing you want to do is write, then you are a writer. If in your heart you know that if you don’t write you might as well die, then you are a writer. You don’t need any fanatic, any critic, or most anyone else to tell you that you are a writer. Believe only what you feel and place conviction in what you know, and then write, write, WRITE! You’ll be surprised how easily your words will flow from your pen after that; like cool, clear, and cleansing water from the fountain of your soul.
(posted elsewhere 15 Nov 2005)
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