A question that haunts poets, 'ISN'T IT DIFFICULT TO FIND ACCE | Writers Cafe

A question that haunts poets, "ISN'T IT DIFFICULT TO FIND ACCEPTANCE?"

What makes the work of a poet most difficult is not that the world doesn't always appreciate what he or she does. We all know how wrong the world can be. It was wrong about Vincent Van Gogh when it refused to purchase his sunflower painting for roughly $125 he was asking, and it is every bit as wrong to pay $35 million or $40 million for it today.

What is most difficult for a poet is to find the time to read and write when there are so many distractions, like making a living and caring for others. But the time set aside for being a poet, even if only for a few moments each day, can be wonderfully happy, full of joyous, solitary discovery.

Here's a passage about the joy of making art from Louise Nevelson's memoir Dawns and Dusks. Nevelson was a sculptor, but what she says about an artist's life can be applied to poetry, too:

"I'd rather work twenty-four hours a day in my studio and come in here and fall down on the bed than do anything I know. Because it is living. It's like pure water; it's living. The essence of living is in doing, and in doing, I have made my world and it's a much better world than I ever saw outside."

The essence of living is in doing, Nevelson suggests, and the essence of being a poet is in the writing, not in the publications or the prizes.

@WritersCafe // @WritersClub