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
- America by Walter William Safar
- Николай Глазков – Движутся телеги и калеки
- the_emigrant.html
- Владимир Маяковский – Вот по борьбе с голодом отчет (Главполитпросвет №320)
- A Question poem – Alfred Austin
- Prologue spoken at the Theatre of Dumfries by Robert Burns
- Continuing To Live by Philip Larkin
- A Rajput Love Song by Sarojini Naidu
- Eclogue:–John An’ Thomas by William Barnes
- A Manual, More Ancient Than The Art Of Printing, And Not To Be Found In Any Catalogue by William Cowper
- Николай Заболоцкий – На рынке
- Олег Бундур – Гроза
- If Only by Mary Etta Metcalf
- In the Blaze.. by Muralidharan Mudaliar
- In A Station Of The Metro poem – Ezra Pound 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).
