A letter exchange with a budding poet...
I got this touching letter, written in the form of a loose poem, from a fellow poet who shared with me his inner doubts:
"How to know if you're a poet,
A writer...
Or a sad dreamer lost in letters?
When I find myself in the whirlwind of my sad escapes,
I wonder if I really am a poet,
and a true writer....
Currently, I continue....
I am just opening the windows...
One after another....
And it makes me happy
to take in these occasional bursts of air
while hoping to find the key to my own door....
Outside, a world awaits since sunrise,
And I am afraid of the night....
I fear that when the night may falls,
They'll all leave...
without ever meeting me.
I think of myself as this little chick,
who tries to beat its wings
to see if it has the strength and courage
to leave its nest....
He dares... Yet is reluctant....
It is hard to jump into the void,...
Into the unknown....
And it is even harder... to fall from the top....
How to fly without seeing the horizon?
I still need the support...."
(By Mohamed Merzoug)
Thank you my dear friend Mohamed, for these most poetic and honest words of reflections about your inner doubts and process as a poet.
I feel honored that you chose to share them with me...
If you'll wait for the world to say: "Mohamed Merzoug, you are a great poet!" it may never happen..... Yet you just heard it from me....
Did it make any different in the way you view yourself and your work?
I sure hope so...
But I suspect that it really did not make much different in the way you view your work.
This is because I am your friend, and we seem to like one another's work.... And the fact that I like your work, only tells you that you have another poet on your side....not much more...
If I were a critic for the NY Times, or if I were working for a major publishing house, you may have taken my words to heart...
Would you believe me if I told you, that many great poets, received during their lifetime, ONLY the recognition of their peers and other poets who lived around them and got to read their poetry?
Many poets who are widely known today, earned praises ONLY from other poet friends, but got no critical acclaim or monetary rewards during their lives.
Many well known poets, and even famous and successful poets, had to take other jobs to survive..
Alexander Pope who achieved great recognition for his poetry and essays during his lifetime, still made most of his money, by translating the works of Homer into English.
Many of the poets that we know very well today, were not confident in their work and were not recognized in their times.
The concept of being a 'famous' poet, is really a recent concept.
Before that, poets were not very well known among regular folks who were not in literary circles, or who did not live in their countries or towns.
Being a famous poet, among the wider public, became popular only after the invention of popular culture. (in the last 100- 200 years)
If you look for the world to love you, you are in for a long and lonely journey into the ocean of disappointments.
The waves of love may lift you higher... But they will crush you on the shores of disapproval soon enough.....
You will never be truly safe in the arms of the flaky, un-loyal world, which changes its taste so frequently....
You have to claim your own place.... Your own right to connect your pen and your heart... And to claim your own right to express your voice....
Do you really think that any poet fully believed in himself?
They mostly got encouragements by peers and other poets, who understood the poetic soul and could appreciate their struggles or their ways with words.
When you look harshly and realistically into it..... in his own mind..... Plato may have just been a lonely Greek scribbler....
The famous Tang's Dynasty poet Li Bai..... was just a drunk Chinese peasant, who wrote about missing his rural home and about getting drunk.
Listen to the song in YOUR heart.... And write it down.... Write for YOU, and share it with others who will resonate with your work.
A whole bunch of poets were not recognized during their lifetime, or died young and their work got any recognition, only after their death.
Sylvia Plath's poetry although published on occasions during her life, sparked the interest of the critics, only after her suicide.
Here are more stories you may want to note...
Franz Kafka enjoyed little or NO success during his lifetime.
He worked as an insurance officer and later worked in an asbestos factory.
Kafka died from starvation brought on by tuberculosis at age 40, before much of his work had been published.
Kafka asked a close friend to burn all his work after his death, but luckily his friend did not do so.
Johann Sebastian Bach, was not recognized as a great composer during his lifetime.
Bach was not even seen as a composer, but as a highly respected and competent organist.
While he was involved with music all his life, and even won some acclaim, his work as a composer largely went unrecognized.
His Baroque compositions were mostly overlooked in his lifetime.
The famous and loved American writer, Henry David Thoreau, during his own time wasn’t widely known or a read author.
Thoreau could not find a publisher for many of this works, and in one case, used his own money to publish his work, selling only a few copies.
At the time of his death, Thoreau published only two books which were not well-received by the larger public.
His major support came from the author Ralph Waldo Emerson.
He only received major attention for his works after his death.
John Kennedy Toole work; "A Confederacy of Dunces" won a Pulitzer Prize in fiction.
His work was not even published nor praised until 12 years after his death.
He submitted his famous novel to the publisher Simon & Schuster, and was told it needed major revisions and that it was actually not publishable.
Distraught over his lack of success and rejection, Toole killed himself in a cabin in Mississippi at the age of 31.
It was not until Toole’s mother brought his novel to the writer Walker Percy, that it was published and received any attention.
Edgar Allan Poe struggled most of his life to make a living as a writer, often making only a few dollars for his work.
He was haunted by the death of his young wife, addiction to alcohol and financial troubles.
Poe moved from place to place trying to sell his work, to stay out of trouble and to make a life as a writer.
His depression and addictions finally grew to be too much and he was found dead in an alley at the age of 40.
While his work did see minor publication during his lifetime, it certainly didn’t see any success.
John Keats' life was very short.
When he was alive, this Romantic poet’s works, weren’t especially well-received.
Critics hated his work and he was mostly appreciated by other poets, not by the wider audience.
Keats didn’t get much time to prove his talent to himself or to anyone else, since he died of tuberculosis at age 25, believing himself a failure.
The painter El Greco was able to make a living as an artist, but he was ridiculed by all art critics.
His work was laughed at and ignored within the academics.
Only after his death, his work inspired other artists who invoked the Expressionist and Cubist movements, drawing inspiration from his dramatic compositions and bizarrely elongated and distorted figures.
There are a whole list of poets who were known, but did not make much money or did not achieved much acclaim, during their lives.
To drop some names:
French poets like Maudits, Villon, Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Mallarmé, Corbière, Desbordes-Valmore, Villiers de l'Isle-Adam, Jarry, Lautréamont and Laforgue.
Romantic English poets like Keats, Shelley and Clare, As well as Emily Dickinson, Kate Chopin and Sylvia Plath.
I think that the lesson here is to believe in yourself...
To connect with other poets and writers, like we all do here on Facebook..... and to DO YOUR ART... WRITE YOUR POETRY....regardless.
Let the world catch up with you as you leave...
Or.... If you believe that you can, and you do the inner work......you can make it happen during your life also...
Good luck to you my dear poet friend... And stay strong.....
I cannot tell you how much it warms my heart to see poets share their poetry here on FB, by posting it on each other's walls...
"How to know if you're a poet,
A writer...
Or a sad dreamer lost in letters?
When I find myself in the whirlwind of my sad escapes,
I wonder if I really am a poet,
and a true writer....
Currently, I continue....
I am just opening the windows...
One after another....
And it makes me happy
to take in these occasional bursts of air
while hoping to find the key to my own door....
Outside, a world awaits since sunrise,
And I am afraid of the night....
I fear that when the night may falls,
They'll all leave...
without ever meeting me.
I think of myself as this little chick,
who tries to beat its wings
to see if it has the strength and courage
to leave its nest....
He dares... Yet is reluctant....
It is hard to jump into the void,...
Into the unknown....
And it is even harder... to fall from the top....
How to fly without seeing the horizon?
I still need the support...."
(By Mohamed Merzoug)
Thank you my dear friend Mohamed, for these most poetic and honest words of reflections about your inner doubts and process as a poet.
I feel honored that you chose to share them with me...
If you'll wait for the world to say: "Mohamed Merzoug, you are a great poet!" it may never happen..... Yet you just heard it from me....
Did it make any different in the way you view yourself and your work?
I sure hope so...
But I suspect that it really did not make much different in the way you view your work.
This is because I am your friend, and we seem to like one another's work.... And the fact that I like your work, only tells you that you have another poet on your side....not much more...
If I were a critic for the NY Times, or if I were working for a major publishing house, you may have taken my words to heart...
Would you believe me if I told you, that many great poets, received during their lifetime, ONLY the recognition of their peers and other poets who lived around them and got to read their poetry?
Many poets who are widely known today, earned praises ONLY from other poet friends, but got no critical acclaim or monetary rewards during their lives.
Many well known poets, and even famous and successful poets, had to take other jobs to survive..
Alexander Pope who achieved great recognition for his poetry and essays during his lifetime, still made most of his money, by translating the works of Homer into English.
Many of the poets that we know very well today, were not confident in their work and were not recognized in their times.
The concept of being a 'famous' poet, is really a recent concept.
Before that, poets were not very well known among regular folks who were not in literary circles, or who did not live in their countries or towns.
Being a famous poet, among the wider public, became popular only after the invention of popular culture. (in the last 100- 200 years)
If you look for the world to love you, you are in for a long and lonely journey into the ocean of disappointments.
The waves of love may lift you higher... But they will crush you on the shores of disapproval soon enough.....
You will never be truly safe in the arms of the flaky, un-loyal world, which changes its taste so frequently....
You have to claim your own place.... Your own right to connect your pen and your heart... And to claim your own right to express your voice....
Do you really think that any poet fully believed in himself?
They mostly got encouragements by peers and other poets, who understood the poetic soul and could appreciate their struggles or their ways with words.
When you look harshly and realistically into it..... in his own mind..... Plato may have just been a lonely Greek scribbler....
The famous Tang's Dynasty poet Li Bai..... was just a drunk Chinese peasant, who wrote about missing his rural home and about getting drunk.
Listen to the song in YOUR heart.... And write it down.... Write for YOU, and share it with others who will resonate with your work.
A whole bunch of poets were not recognized during their lifetime, or died young and their work got any recognition, only after their death.
Sylvia Plath's poetry although published on occasions during her life, sparked the interest of the critics, only after her suicide.
Here are more stories you may want to note...
Franz Kafka enjoyed little or NO success during his lifetime.
He worked as an insurance officer and later worked in an asbestos factory.
Kafka died from starvation brought on by tuberculosis at age 40, before much of his work had been published.
Kafka asked a close friend to burn all his work after his death, but luckily his friend did not do so.
Johann Sebastian Bach, was not recognized as a great composer during his lifetime.
Bach was not even seen as a composer, but as a highly respected and competent organist.
While he was involved with music all his life, and even won some acclaim, his work as a composer largely went unrecognized.
His Baroque compositions were mostly overlooked in his lifetime.
The famous and loved American writer, Henry David Thoreau, during his own time wasn’t widely known or a read author.
Thoreau could not find a publisher for many of this works, and in one case, used his own money to publish his work, selling only a few copies.
At the time of his death, Thoreau published only two books which were not well-received by the larger public.
His major support came from the author Ralph Waldo Emerson.
He only received major attention for his works after his death.
John Kennedy Toole work; "A Confederacy of Dunces" won a Pulitzer Prize in fiction.
His work was not even published nor praised until 12 years after his death.
He submitted his famous novel to the publisher Simon & Schuster, and was told it needed major revisions and that it was actually not publishable.
Distraught over his lack of success and rejection, Toole killed himself in a cabin in Mississippi at the age of 31.
It was not until Toole’s mother brought his novel to the writer Walker Percy, that it was published and received any attention.
Edgar Allan Poe struggled most of his life to make a living as a writer, often making only a few dollars for his work.
He was haunted by the death of his young wife, addiction to alcohol and financial troubles.
Poe moved from place to place trying to sell his work, to stay out of trouble and to make a life as a writer.
His depression and addictions finally grew to be too much and he was found dead in an alley at the age of 40.
While his work did see minor publication during his lifetime, it certainly didn’t see any success.
John Keats' life was very short.
When he was alive, this Romantic poet’s works, weren’t especially well-received.
Critics hated his work and he was mostly appreciated by other poets, not by the wider audience.
Keats didn’t get much time to prove his talent to himself or to anyone else, since he died of tuberculosis at age 25, believing himself a failure.
The painter El Greco was able to make a living as an artist, but he was ridiculed by all art critics.
His work was laughed at and ignored within the academics.
Only after his death, his work inspired other artists who invoked the Expressionist and Cubist movements, drawing inspiration from his dramatic compositions and bizarrely elongated and distorted figures.
There are a whole list of poets who were known, but did not make much money or did not achieved much acclaim, during their lives.
To drop some names:
French poets like Maudits, Villon, Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Mallarmé, Corbière, Desbordes-Valmore, Villiers de l'Isle-Adam, Jarry, Lautréamont and Laforgue.
Romantic English poets like Keats, Shelley and Clare, As well as Emily Dickinson, Kate Chopin and Sylvia Plath.
I think that the lesson here is to believe in yourself...
To connect with other poets and writers, like we all do here on Facebook..... and to DO YOUR ART... WRITE YOUR POETRY....regardless.
Let the world catch up with you as you leave...
Or.... If you believe that you can, and you do the inner work......you can make it happen during your life also...
Good luck to you my dear poet friend... And stay strong.....
I cannot tell you how much it warms my heart to see poets share their poetry here on FB, by posting it on each other's walls...
