"Letters to a Young Poet (original title, in German: Briefe an einen jungen Dichter) is a collection of ten letters written by the Bohemian-Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926) to Franz Xaver Kappus, a 19-year-old officer cadet at the Theresian Military Academy in Wiener Neustadt, between 1903 and 1908. Kappus corresponded with the popular poet seeking his advice as to the quality of his poetry." [From Wikipedia]
This short booklet is one among the many favourite books I have, and keep going back to. It's full of life wisdom in which I recognise the wisdom, I myself have reached now, in my old age.
When giving workshops or lectures, there is a question that keeps appearing: «Tell us exactly what are the right steps to... (whatever they want to reach)!»
The inevitable answer is that there aren't codified "right steps" and whoever preaches that there are: is a fool, or a very immature person! Because the steps that work out well for a person may easily be a complete disaster for another.
Therefore my answer is what I found today, when I happened to take this, almost forgotten booklet, out of the bookshelf. Here is what Rilke says:
«You ask whether your verses are any good. You ask me. You have asked others before this. You send them to magazines. You compare them with other poems, and you are upset when certain editors reject your work. Now (since you have said you want my advice) I beg you to stop doing that sort of thing. You are looking outside, and that is what you should most avoid right now. No one can advise or help you – no one.
There is only one thing you should do. Go into yourself. Find out the reason that commands you to write; see whether it has spread its roots into the very depths of your heart; confess to yourself whether you would have to die if you were forbidden to write. This most of all: ask yourself in the most silent hour of your night: must I write? Dig into yourself for a deep answer. And if this answer rings out in assent, if you meet this solemn question with a strong, simple “I must”, then build your life in accordance with this necessity; your whole life, even into its humblest and most indifferent hour, must become a sign and witness to this impulse. Then come close to Nature. Then, as if no one had ever tried before, try to say what you see and feel and love and lose.»
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Here you find all the letters to read or to listen to]
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