When I graduated college, a professor gave me a copy of Letters to a Young Poet and I’ve been reading through it lately. Here’s a thought from my journal dated February 4, 2018:
Rilke says in his first letter to go deep within and find what bids you to be a writer. For me, the act itself calls out. My thoughts, unwritten, will blow away. My memories, my emotions, and how I make sense of them. Poetry is how I order the world. Without poetry, without even the simple action of writing, life is chaos, or seems that way. In writing, I can find the thread that goes through it all.
Travis Poling, MA 