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
- Яков Полонский – Цветок
- Lines to Mr. John Kennedy by Robert Burns
- A Token by Robert Creeley
- In The Forum poem – Alfred Austin
- A Florida Sunday. by Sidney Lanier
- Gone
- On A Good Man (From The Greek) by William Cowper
- In Abeyance by Satish Verma
- Robert Burns: On A Henpecked Country Squire:
- Be Lost In The Call by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- Blame Aphrodite by Sappho
- The Ballad Of Moll Magee by William Butler Yeats
- The Mother Of God by William Butler Yeats
- Ярослав Смеляков – Вот опять ты мне вспомнилась, мама
- Pride and Fury by Mahmoud Darwish
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).
