by Sage Cohen
The idea that talent and suffering go hand in hand in the life of poetry has become legendary; and the “starving poet” is now an all-too-familiar archetype. I think it’s time to blow some kisses to this archetype and bid it adieu. Why? Because it keeps us small, scared and struggling. And it keeps our poetry starved for something bigger in us.
The truth is, starving poets are too busy trying to make ends meet to write much poetry. And the well-fed, reasonably-employed poet has such comforts as a roof over her head and some tried-and-true organizational skills to employ toward the success of her writing life — whatever she defines that success to be.
A few years ago, when I had the good fortune to hear Mary Oliver read, she mentioned a review in which the reviewer had no particular objection to Oliver’s poetry per se, but seemed quite troubled by the fact that this poet found the time to lie around in the grass and contemplate nature. Oliver must have a trust fund, the reviewer concluded, in order to afford such leisure, thereby suggesting that poetry is available only to the independently wealthy.
The truth, said Oliver, is that she lives extremely modestly on money she has earned. And in so doing, she is liberated from the overwhelming demands of “making a living” so that she has the time and space to make a (writing) life. What Oliver clearly understands (and the reviewer clearly doesn’t) is that the wealth of creativity is available to every single one of us in any given moment. We need only choose to tune in wherever we are — whether it be a field of daisies or a swath of concrete — and start writing.
If we don’t question the popular paradigm that aligns “wealth” with money and we make the pursuit of cash a primary goal, we may find that we have little time left over for poetry. And on the flip side, if we neglect our material needs in pursuit of a life poetic, we are likely to end up in real, uninspiring distress.
But if we agree that a prosperous life is one with time to literally and figuratively smell the roses, and then luxuriate in the time to write about it, then we are establishing a root system for a new “poetry of prosperity” — one which we feed and water with our attention and our words. By recognizing, welcoming and prioritizing both our material and creative needs, we have a far better chance of striking a balance that feels like true wealth and can sustain us over the long term.
For money, I write marketing content for businesses such as Blue Shield, Intuit and Wells Fargo. For love, I write poetry and nonfiction. I’ve always considered my “day job” to be a critical part of my creative process; it pays the bills and hones my writing skills so I can have the luxury of doing what I love most — writing creatively. By choosing to be grateful about the opportunities my day job creates rather than grumpy about the time it takes from the writing I’d rather be doing, I’ve discovered more and more opportunities to bring the two together until a few years ago, love and money converged in the authoring of Writing the Life Poetic: An Invitation to Read and Write Poetry (2009, Writer’s Digest Books).
And with this shift, I have an even greater appreciation for the skills cultivated for more than a decade at my “day job,” which has sculpted me into a high-performance communicator skilled at meeting deadlines, promoting effectively and generally following through on my goals and commitments.
For me, the choice to be satisfied with the cross-fertilization of all of the work that I do is true wealth.
No matter what your financial status, time limitations or family commitments might be, I know that you have the skills and the creativity to cultivate a spirit and a practice of prosperity both in your life and in your poetry. In fact, you can choose right this minute to start re-imagining the “starving poet” stereotype as the “prosperous poet.” Once you start investigating, you may be surprised to find yourself shaping a life that is wealthy with time, inspiration, community and even money. I’ll bet you will find yourself doing more and more of what you love most without sacrificing anything but an old archetype whose time has come and gone.
Sage Cohen is the author of Writing the Life Poetic: An Invitation to Read and Write Poetry and the poetry collection Like the Heart, the World. Learn more at Writing the Life Poetic.
Oh why not take a shortcut. Marry someone old senile and loaded!
Sage Cohen replied:
March 29th, 2010 at 12:42 pm
That’s hilarious! I’ll add that to my list of tips for poets!
jmcneely replied:
March 29th, 2010 at 5:32 pm
poets have to marry for love, right? How can you write sonnets and such?
rallentanda replied:
March 29th, 2010 at 9:58 pm
Wrong. Easily:)
jmcneely replied:
March 30th, 2010 at 4:36 am
So THAT’s why my wife did it!
A wonderful article, Sage! There is certainly nothing romantic or inspiring about constantly being stressed over money and not knowing how you’re going to pay the rent or buy food. I lived like that for many years and I’m not interested in that sort of a life–it certainly did nothing to feed my soul. I’m very lucky to have relatively stable, interesting job that is sufficient to pay the bills nowadays (I live pretty simply)…but often it feels like too much of a job. I frequently fantasize about starting up a massage therapy practice again, so that I will have more schedule flexibility and more time to write. But then I remember that running your own business has it’s own set of stresses and can be very unstable.
It feels to me like I’m engaged in a constant balancing act; doing everything I can to preserve my mental energy, reduce my work stress levels, and find the energy and time to write around what can be a demanding job.Some days, I come home and I’m just too knackered to write. But I find that the more I focus on integration…seeing my job, my commute, the day to day things of life, not as a separate annoyance from my writing life, but as an rich opportunity for inspiration, then I cease to become panicky about not having time to write, since it’s all food for poetry.
Sage Cohen replied:
March 29th, 2010 at 12:42 pm
Kristen,
Yes! You have the secret sauce in your writing life kitchen: integration. Once we start seeing every single moment of our days as an expression of our writing lives, it is so much easier to relax into it all and stay awake to the possibilities of poetry everywhere!
Thanks for sharing your experience!
Sage
I agree with this article. I also have been thinking that we are seeing a shift in the way that poetry is disseminated at all. I am personally much more interested in sharing my writing with others who are writing, and in getting meaningful commentary back from friends who are on the same road, than in trying to go through the whole effort of traditional publishing. However, publishing here and via a blog directly goes to people who are most likely to be interested – other active poets.
Also, if you take the dream of making your living from writing poems out of the equation, it also removes the need to adapt to the market, so you have more freedom of expression. Most of my stuff centers around using nature as a metaphor for expressing philosophical or profound spiritual human truths; is there a market for this? I’ve never cared! But at least now my stuff is being shared with a few interested people who give me some meaningful feedback. Now through the web there is a place for people to share their writing even though they are not crazy enough to try to make a living from writing poetry. Since some of the stuff I’ve been exposed to on here is not only excellent, but free from pressure to write stuff that is marketable, I think we are seeing a level of expression that we might never have seen before.
I actually have a lot more to say about this but I am running out of time. See some of my musings about the nature of internet culture at this blog if you’re interested:
http://rethinkthweb.blogspot.com/
I will be brief becasue my day job beckons, but I love this post. I write a lot about nature as well because for me it is my daydream. As a single working parent I don’t get out into nature enough, yet I longingly feel its pull. Writing about it allows me to be there enveloped in what I love about life.
I love what another said about taking the notion of ‘not making a living’ out of your poetry and how you end up with more freedom of expression. I too recently arrived upon that ah-ha. Many of the underground, online lit journals my peers are constantly published within feature topics I just don’t want to talk about (and they aren’t being paid for those publications.) I would rather vet out publications that feature work similar to mine even if it means smaller chances of acceptance. When I tried to chase a particular market there was a dishonesty to my writing that was transparent. My words were there, but filtered through another’s lense.
Great topic and very timely for this poet who is still working to find her voice. Thank you!
sagecohen replied:
March 29th, 2010 at 2:03 pm
So glad you are honoring what is true for you in your life and your writing. Your poetry will be so much richer for it; and I would argue that your odds of publication will be even better!
Yes, the freedom to be who we are and express what needs expression is one of the great gifts of poetry. It will be exciting to discover all of the possibilities for prosperity along the way.
So glad to hear that you have connected with readers who give meaningful feedback. In my experience, just one attentive reader closes the loop in the most satisfying of ways!
I really like this post as well! I feel guilty that I am a freelancer (really not making any money while my husband works full-time), but when I go back to work full-time I want to have this attitude! Granted, there is no way I can go back to the work I used to do. It was too mentally draining but I’d love to do some teaching or content writing myself.
Thanks for the great article!
Guilt — who needs it? : ) What if you were to feel blessed and grateful about the opportunity to develop your writing life in the ways that you desire — as a freelancer — and to grow a writing life from that foundation?
Thanks for weighing in — and happy National Poetry Month!