The Written Word

this will not turn out to be a poem
if anything it's going to regurgitate shit
I'm not going to use any fucking literary technique
or clever wordplay because simplicity is key.

don't write like Dickens
'cause soap operas with loads of filler
overblown sentimentality and ambition won't
make you an artist.

don't write to imitate Austen
'cause formulaic love plots saturated with
satire and intelligent women doesn't pass for
feminism.

apply the 15 min rule of Trollope
when you're starting out maybe
to foster discipline. but that's like saying
your body is a machine to churn out
page after page after page of shit upon bullshit.

don't become an elitist like Nietzsche
the world isn't turned by the great minds
'cause if anything it's ruled by dumber minds than yours
people in whom you find the best representative of
Ideals.

don't preach about Christ's suffering
or how one race is better than others
why one God is true, and the rest false
dump the Greeks and European philosophers of 19th century
go read Russell and Wittgenstein
if the Logical Truth seduces you with Reason.

do whatever the fuck you love
write about whatever the fuck you want
to discover your true voice
when you're down and out
broke as fuck, almost an inch away
from pulling that trigger
with an ailing liver or cancer plaguing your bones
yet that drive to decimate all the phony poets and authors
burns.

drink like Raymond Chandler
throw up on your typewriters (at night)
edit when sober (in the afternoon)
make a scrapbook with those rejection slips
but don't stop, 'cause
Time
is your enemy all by its
Lonesome.