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.
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“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!