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
- Not quite dark yet by Yosa Buson
- The Child and the Mariner by William Henry Davies
- Зинаида Александрова – Новый снег
- Fairy Land v by William Shakespeare
- In Imitation of E. of Rochester : On Silence poem – Alexander Pope poems | Poetry Monster
- To The King’s Most Excellent Majesty by Phillis Wheatley
- The Thousandth Man by Rudyard Kipling
- Владимир Маяковский – Раньше иностранцы шли в Россию как разбойники и воры… (Роста №105)
- Autumn by Siegfried Sassoon
- Darkness poem – Aldous Huxley poems | Poetry Monster
- The Empty Boats by Vachel Lindsay
- Алексей Жемчужников – Себе
- Heaven–Haven: A Nun Takes The Veil poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- Анатолий Жигулин – Мне помнится рудник Бутугычаг
- To Haydon poem – John Keats poems
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).