Rhys TrimbleRhys Trimble is a bilingual poet, private tutor and performer working in north Wales. Rhys has published poetry in Poetry Wales, Tears in the Fence, Seventh Quarry, Coffee House Poetry, Aesthetica, Skald and various other magazines.
myspace.com/bastardcymraeg
myspace.com/bastardcymraeg
Previous articles by Rhys:
Advice for poets
by C.Bukowski & r.trimble
who am i to give advice here anyway? so, in an attempt to add some 'weight' to my words i intend to call-in some help from a past-master, no other than Charles Bukowski. someone who got me into poetry and made the poetic aesthetic accessible to my art-starved soul as was. in particular i want to look at Bukowski's poem: So You Want To Be a Writer? Taking the advice given in the poem a point at a time and adding my own rejoinders.
so you want to be a writer?
Charles Bukowski (c.b.) |
rhys trimble (r.t.) | |
if it doesn't come bursting out of you in spite of everything, don't do it. |
this, much like the thrust of the whole poem is very romantic; very difficult to be this romantic in our current age, but still holds true in making poems 'unconstructed' and vital rather than 'intellectual sculpture' |
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unless it comes unasked out of your heart and your mind and your mouth and your gut, don't do it. |
repetition of above. | |
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if you have to sit for hours staring at your computer screen or hunched over your typewriter searching for words, don't do it. |
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if you're doing it for money or fame, don't do it. |
poets of any recognition are unlikely be writing solely for these reasons, but if fame or money enter into it they will only weaken your work by distracting you from the real reason-- to write something 'good.' |
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if you're doing it because you want women in your bed, don't do it. |
quite absurd (sic.) to think of this as likely to increase your chances today, although… |
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if you have to sit there and rewrite it again and again, don't do it. |
repetition. | |
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if it's hard work just thinking about doing it, don't do it. |
repetition. | |
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if you're trying to write like somebody else, forget about it. |
initially it's very good to emulate others as a journey towards your 'own voice.' |
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if you have to wait for it to roar out of you, then wait patiently. if it never does roar out of you, do something else. |
repetition, but still, one certainly shouldn't force oneself to write… |
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if you first have to read it to your wife or your girlfriend or your boyfriend or your parents or to anybody at all, you're not ready. |
very true as it reflects your own uncertainty at the standard of your own work |
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don't be like so many writers, don't be like so many thousands of people who call themselves writers, don't be dull and boring and pretentious, don't be consumed with self- love. the libraries of the world have yawned themselves to sleep over your kind. don't add to that. |
self-love another symptom of fame, search for wealth etc. will probably weaken your work, but you have to get there first! also reflects Buk's arrogance here, you can't really discount whole libraries of work. |
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don't do it. unless it comes out of your soul like a rocket, unless being still would drive you to madness or suicide or murder, don't do it. unless the sun inside you is burning your gut, don't do it. |
melodramatic & reflective of Buk's own 'redemption'/ salvation through writing, but if true of your own writing, something to be cherished as it makes your work real & practical, if only to your self as catharsis (e.g. 'teen angst poetry) |
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when it is truly time, and if you have been chosen, it will do it by itself and it will keep on doing it until you die or it dies in you. there is no other way. and there never was. |
the poem ends with romance again & something of a historic attitude, with poet as 'elevated being' having been 'chosen' (by whom?) etc. betrays Buk's apparent conceited attitude |
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overall then, we have a strong inclination to discourage people from writing in this poem (don't do it...) -Buk having been someone who hardly ever praised other poets work- also Buk seems to have broken a couple of his own rules, churning out a vast quantity of material: not all of it good-- apart from the negatives though, this is the advice i tried to follow (with minimal self-deception) when i started to write poems, and certainly keeps you out of many common pitfalls. the other positive i would add to this advice is to take courage from your passion for writing: text, poetry or whatever and this alone, also read as much as possible, even old curmudgeons like Bukowski.
Comments
Pukowski - clearly a wanker. Ordering people not to write? Who is
this dictator? A chosen few who are allowed to write? selected by him
presumably. Many writers think rewiting is essential - how else can you find
your voice? Others talk openly of fallow periods of page staring. Ok, some
poems are better for the energy & sponteneity of the burst of creativity,
but others are not and need work. This poem is deeply unhelpful. The best
advice I've heard to aspiring writers? Read, read, then read some more and
write whenever you can.
Gog: 21st August 2009
This quote from wikipedia goes some way to explaining his meaning
though does not change my opinion of him (wanker): His gravestone reads:
'Don't Try', a phrase which Bukowski uses in one of his poems, advising
aspiring writers and poets about inspiration and creativity. Bukowski
explains the phrase in a 1963 letter to John William Corrington as follows:
'Somebody at one of these places ... asked me: 'What do you do? How do you
write, create?' You don't, I told them. You don't try. That's very
important: not to try, either for Cadillacs, creation or immortality. You
wait, and if nothing happens, you wait some more. It's like a bug high on
the wall. You wait for it to come to you. When it gets close enough you
reach out, slap out and kill it. Or if you like its looks you make a pet out
of it.'[13]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Bukowski ^ p.49, Living on
Luck: Selected Letters 1960s-1970s Volume 2
Gog: 21st August 2009
Yeah, I already covered the reading bit, that is good advice. He's
certainly a contentious bugger, but I guess it's just a rail against the
poetry establishment of his time; which still has a lot of the same problems
today. Check out this article: http://www.textetc.com/modernist/current-difficulties.html
Rhys: 21st August 2009
1. 'unbroken' poem may by found at: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/16549