Mudcat Poetry Corner

Subject: RE: Mudcat Poetry Corner
From: Amos
Date: 12 Feb 03 - 10:23 AM

Rainer Maria Rilke offered this to a young aspiring poet who was asking for his approval:

You ask whether your verses are an y good. You ask me. You have asked others before this. You send them to magazines. You compare them with other poems, and you are upset when certain editors reject your work. Now (since you have said you want my advice) I beg you to stop doing that sort of thing. You are looking outside, and that is what you should most avoid right now. No one can advise or help you - no one. There is only one thing you should do. Go into yourself. Find out the reason that commands you to write; see whether it has spread its roots into the very depths of your heart; confess to yourself whether you would have to die if you were forbidden to write. This most of all: ask yourself in the most silent hour of your night: must I write? Dig into yourself for a deep answer. And if this answer rings out in assent, if you meet this solemn question with a strong, simple "I must," then build your life in accordance with this necessity; your while life, even into its humblest and most indifferent hour, must become a sign and witness to this impulse.

I include it here for encouragement.


A

Subject: Mudcat Poetry Corner
From: Amos
Date: 12 Feb 03 - 10:07 AM

I would like to offer you all a place to put your poetry, whether it is rigorously structured, , freeform, shmaltzy rhyme, haiku, irreverent doggerel, earth-moving Yeatsian profundity or cummingsoid rockets. Mostly I invite you to add something to the beauty in the world. here.

If time permits, I may get together with our Gaelic Goddess and start us an online book of it along the lines of the Mudcat Song Book of which she is the honored Keeper...

Please do not include epics. Paeans to television shows are discouraged.

Guests are welcome to contribute -- being members of the honorable community of Anons who have added so much to our rich poetic legacy.

Write well, write often, and add some beauty.

Regards,


A