These are a valid questions to any artist. Many cultivators of sublime creations were not even appreciated in their time….
Vincent Van Gough only sold one painting… tragically committing suicide because of his lack of recognition. Only a small amount of his paintings even saw the light of serious exhibitions, what did only shown to minimal praise.
Emily Dickinson remained “zero to the bone” to the end… not recognized until her death. . She wrote more than 1800 poems… with only ten accepted for publication while she was still alive… it’s been said that the rest she sent to friends and family or kept for herself. Can you imagine?! She is an inspiration even today…
John Keats wrote the best of his works as he was slowly dying of tuberculosis around 1821, at the young age of 25. It wasn’t until 1840 that his work was recognized. Even blues icon Robert Johnson endured obscurity and just worked gig to gig until his death in 1938 at 27. Now he remains a beacon of light within the works of Eric Clapton, The Rolling Stones, and Led Zeppelin to name a few.
Henry David Thoreau’s “Walden” was published in 1854… sold fewer than 2000 copies, then went out of print. This from one friend of Ralph Waldo Emerson said at his passing, “ The country knows not yet… how great a son it has lost.” His profound naturalistic rebel attitude and self reliant swagger inspires me personally even today.
Sylvia Plath. Herman Melville. The list goes on and on…
This transcends writing forms or references. This gets to the core of our drive, and maintains our personal motivation,… as well as inertia. It challenges who we are and where we are going.
Success… failure… dogged determination to carry on regardless of outside pressures. What drove us to pick up a pen or rhyme a word in the first place?
It isn’t always to absorb accolades or seek recognition of worth. That just does not represent healthy direction.
It is for the sheer love that we endure the troubles, surpass the tribulations, and strive for more quality work,… better than any we have put out before. Despite setbacks, the love of writing and the sheer delight of seeing one’s finished work performed to personal expectations should be more than enough to fuel the want for more.
Patience and fortitude is what keeps us writing! Confidence in our abilities will always carry the day into brighter tomorrows. Even if that ability may not even be appreciated in our lifetime… it will remain a testament to who we are in words of fine literature forever. Our poems will become our legacy. Believe it reader!
Please feel free to tell me why you write and what keeps you on the straight path to worthy destinations in your writing! Thanks for reading and write on poets!
Matt Elmore
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