24 July 2009

Is this why we blog?

I came across this piece on the website where I'm learning guitar. I thought it was kind of interesting:

so you want to be a writer? by Charles Bukowski

if it doesn't come bursting out of you in spite of everything,
don't do it.
unless it comes unasked out of your heart and your mind and your mouth and your gut,
don't do it.
if you have to sit for hours staring at your computer screen
or hunched over your typewriter
searching for words,
don't do it.
if you're doing it for money or fame,
don't do it.
if you're doing it because you want women in your bed,
don't do it.
if you have to sit there and rewrite it again and again,
don't do it.
if it's hard work just thinking about doing it,
don't do it.
if you're trying to write like somebody else,
forget about it.

if you have to wait for it to roar out of you,
then wait patiently.
if it never does roar out of you,
do something else.

if you first have to read it to your wife
or your girlfriend or your boyfriend
or your parents or to anybody at all,
you're not ready.

don't be like so many writers,
don't be like so many thousands of
people who call themselves writers,
don't be dull and boring and
pretentious, don't be consumed with self-love.

the libraries of the world have
yawned themselves to sleep
over your kind.
don't add to that.
don't do it.


unless it comes out of
your soul like a rocket,
unless being still would
drive you to madness or
suicide or murder,
don't do it.

unless the sun inside you is
burning your gut,
don't do it.

when it is truly time,
and if you have been chosen,
it will do it by
itself and it will keep on doing it
until you die or it dies in you.

there is no other way.

and there never was.

3 comments:

  1. O, Lisa! How nimble you are with words!! I love this! Thank you for stopping by my place so that I could find you! You are right--"If you have been chosen, it will do it by itself..." Writing is something I cannot help...I am glad for the blogging outled. C

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  3. Thanks C! I hope I didn't give the impression that I wrote that poem!! lol! =0) I copied it from my guitar lesson website.

    I really enjoy your blog. Keep up the great work! I feel the same way about writing. Let's keep on expressing all that stuff inside of us that wants to get out!

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