Advice To A Poet At His Or Her Beginnings Poem by Bill Grace

Ignore the frumps who will kill you before you start:
The English teacher who shrugs at your first piece
The editors who judge
The great poverty and lack of money of the task
No, it will not support you.
You can not surrender eating to this deeper passion.

If wise you will read other poets
As painters study other painters
Louis Untermeyer helped cull my throng.
Politely disregard the many who will tell you, you are wrong.

Write, write, write on
Publish where and how you can
Refuse to be crushed.

The goal not fame or money
Some deep part of soul expressed -
This alone will grant some rest
And someday the creation of the piece
That is an experience for those who understand.