"When you set out to become a writer..."

 

Today, after three weeks of pure relaxation,  I will be heading out the door early.  National Writing Project begins today, and I have the privilege of being a response leader once again. Since I am going deeper into a writing journey over the next two weeks, I thought this poem I wrote about the writing journey would be appropriate for today's blog.  I wrote this poem as a model for my students to write their own Ithaca poem when we were studying The Odyssey.

Ithaca, as you may know, is the home that Odysseus is attempting to return to for twenty years. The idea of Ithaca has produced many poems about journeys, and I wrote this one based on a poem by C.P. Cavafy  ((here is a link to his poem) which uses Ithaca as a metaphor for any place we wish to journey.

So for writers and teachers of writers and those who love to read the writing of other...here is what Ithaca means to me (and in some ways it has been longer than 20 years trying to get there!)

Ithaca

When you set out to become a writer,

Pray that your road’s a long one,

full of adventure, full of discovery.

Inner critics, outer critics,

those who say you can’t – don’t be scared of them:

you won’t find things like that on your way

as long as your thoughts are exalted,

as long as a rare excitement

stirs your spirit and your body.

Inner critics, outer critics,

those who say you can’t,

you won’t encounter problems with them

unless you bring them along inside you,

unless your soul raises them up in front of you.

Pray that your writing path is a long one.

May there be many a summer morning when –

full of gratitude, full of joy –

you come into harbors seen for the first time;

may you stop at bookstores and art shops

and buy fun things for your writing space,

bright colored posters, writing pens,

inspirational books and thick tablets in soft colors,

and many colored pencils, pens, highlighters,

to delight your senses as you sink into your writing space;

may you visit numerous author’s events

to fill yourself with learning from the wise.

 

Keep writing always in mind.

Arriving there is what you’re destined for.

But don’t hurry the journey at all.

Better if it goes for years

so you’re old by the time you reach the published land,

wealthy with all you’ve gained on the way,

not expecting writing to make you rich.

For it is a marvelous journey.

Without it, you wouldn’t have sent out.

Writing hasn’t anything else to give.

And if you find her poor, writing won’t have fooled you.

Wise as you’ll have become, and so experienced,

you’ll have understood by then what a writer’s path means.