Our poems will be our legacy

Patience And Fortitude #2   “Legacy”

What keeps you writing poet? Will you stop before your end is near? What kinds of great works might you miss out on should you give up now?

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

The Line By Line Song Game

 The Line By Line Song Game

It was my brother David’s birthday this past weekend, and us three brothers got together to camp out and spend some quality guy time together hanging out and doing guy stuff.

My oldest brother Doug is a real nut. After a few drinks we got to singing songs referring to anything and everything we were talking about… from fishing to stars to getting older… we sang about it.. satirically of course!

Seems Doug loves poking fun at me being a poet (of course)! My new book is called “Constellation Road”…. so in true big brother fashion he had to tease me… I’m the baby of the three brothers… each five years apart. 

So he hit me up with something like “I felt the pressure grow on constipation road” and I answered his challenge with something like “it jumped on me like an unwanted toad”… and so on… My middle brother David laughed and added his line… we carried an like this, playing cards and joking under the stars.

I thought a little about this… about how our words affect others… how the interaction brings on new meaning. Like poetry collaborations… or songwriters working together. There was a magic in the lyrical combinations of writers like Lennon/McCartney. They bounced ideas off of each other and came up with songs that were no doubt stronger than they would ever have been with only an individual effort.

In my last blog, I referred to reconciling differences. I used an analogy of teaching different aged children with various circumstances and the effect that had on my perspective. Perspective is everything in writing. This variation in culture, class, ability, and gender really brought about a serious change about how I looked at things.

I noticed differences in the way that my brother and I thought of a topic, and exchanged ideas in the line by line song game. We were making each other laugh. It was just extemporaneous fun. An old poet musician friend of mine from college, Bill Harroun, used to play that game together years ago staggering arm in arm in between pubs. It got out of hand at times, but was always fun for us and anyone around us that may have joined in!

“Extemporaneous Prose” I’ve heard it referred to in the classroom… stream of consciousness creativity. Straight from the heart. Or wherever! It comes from these experiences we have with others, from reconciling differences in others for a new world view.

This series is to explore how we as writers come up with our expression and content. The idea of communicating with others is an essential component to growing… or else our work becomes stagnant. I couldn’t imagine a sequel to Henry David Thoreau’s “Walden”, or “Animal Farm” by George Orwell. The story itself says it all so well… why bother going on? The author moves on to the next experience, the next topic, the next hurdle to be jumped.

I ask you to consider where your view comes from reader… do you believe you interpret the world around you from others? Or is it an insular experience, drawn from your own observations? Would you be willing to bounce ideas off of others and collaborate? Do you do so without even knowing… reflected in your solo work subconsciously? 

As writers, when we sit down,… where do the ideas come from? Experience? Imagination? Reflecting lessons from what has happened to those around us? Maybe all three? Possibly more?

I want to thank you for joining me! PLEASE FEEL FREE TO COMMENT on this blog! Answer some of the above questions and let’s create a most welcome dialogue!  Also… join me later this week for the conclusion to this series on “Reconciling Differences”

Until then dear poet… stretch your perspective. Sharen your expression… and always write on! 🚀

Matt Elmore

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