For The Young Who Want To Poem by Marge Piercy

For The Young Who Want To

Rating: 3.5


Talent is what they say
you have after the novel
is published and favorably
reviewed. Beforehand what
you have is a tedious
delusion, a hobby like knitting.

Work is what you have done
after the play is produced
and the audience claps.
Before that friends keep asking
when you are planning to go
out and get a job.

Genius is what they know you
had after the third volume
of remarkable poems. Earlier
they accuse you of withdrawing,
ask why you don't have a baby,
call you a bum.

The reason people want M.F.A.'s,
take workshops with fancy names
when all you can really
learn is a few techniques,
typing instructions and some-
body else's mannerisms

is that every artist lacks
a license to hang on the wall
like your optician, your vet
proving you may be a clumsy sadist
whose fillings fall into the stew
but you're certified a dentist.

The real writer is one
who really writes. Talent
is an invention like phlogiston
after the fact of fire.
Work is its own cure. You have to
like it better than being loved.

COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Donatien Moisdon 03 April 2016

So true, and so beautifully expressed! Friends, family and neighbours cannot believe that you should possess talent and the will power to make it bloom. It all goes down to the old saying: Nothing good can ever come out of Nazareth.

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M Asim Nehal 01 November 2015

Wise words, , , , , , , , , , , , , , You have to like it better than being loved.

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Colleen Courtney 18 May 2014

So very much truth in this poem! Think I've got another favorite poet to add to my list!

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Res John Burman 25 April 2013

That is outstanding, Marge Piercy. I was sent here by my friend Rosemary Nissen - Wade. For once I am glad that I did what I was told! Thank you both.

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Marcy Jarvis 22 September 2005

I guess you're write, I mean right. That's the difference between writers and talented writers.

1 0 Reply
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Marge Piercy

Marge Piercy

Detroit, Michigan
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