In the bar I told Dean, “Hell, man, I know very well you didn’t come to me only to want to become a writer, and after all what do I really know about it except you’ve got to stick to it with the energy of a benny addict.”
Or an espresso addict and get juiced during-30 minute timed writings by cranking Gould’s recording of Bach’s Italian Concerto, putting the third movement on repeat … fill one dollar composition notebooks & $20 Moleskines in my 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, and now 60s … make a list of all the people I can send 200 poems to (We Inter-Are) … encourage everyone and their bubbe to write the truths only they can tell (they are legion) … generate thousands of pieces of snail mail in the spirit of bodhisattva David Dunn … introduce approx 2,500 people (all ages, but mostly the young) to Goldberg’s writing practice manual … spend fortune on books for my shelves and friends’ shelves … launch countless communal blogs … extol di Prima, Waldman, Whitman, Weinberger, Brainard, and Galeano … croon praises of my pals’s literary and/or spiritual conversations … write my own Jewish book (Wiesel), Catholic book (Mev), Buddhist book (Layla), Whitman book (Comrades), and “Here Comes Everybody” book (Inter-Are) … though my sun may be setting still I will spread the Good News of the Via Creativa with more serenity and detachment than three days ago.
“write my own Jewish book (Wiesel), Catholic book (Mev), Buddhist book (Layla), Whitman book (Comrades), and “Here Comes Everybody” book (Inter-Are)”
Mark, the above sentence is the forming of a solid joke (in the best way possible) in it of itself! “A writer walks into a bar with a Jewish book, Catholic book, Buddhist book, Whitman book, and a “here Comes Everybody” book…
Thank you for being a consistent inspiration that we can always stretch and grow and learn!