This most of all: ask yourself in the most silent hour of your night: must I write? Dig into yourself for a deep answer. 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. But does youth have patience for such practice? And, in this day and age, when “youth” lasts well into the fifties, does anyone? Back to Rilke: It’s all about the tortoise, the writer willing to let his poetry steep, age, meld its flavors. Sound advice, if you’re one of these poets in a hurry. You are looking outside, and that is what you should most avoid right now. Now (since you have said you want my advice) I beg you to stop doing that sort of thing. You compare them with other poems, and you are upset when certain editors reject your work. “You ask whether your verses are any good. One thing the first letter establishes quickly is that Rilke falls in with those poets who believe you should write for yourself as opposed to for markets (for others, if you will): But mostly a philosophy on life and insight into the way Rilke thinks. If you read Letters to a Young Poet today (there are ten in toto), you’ll see that the first letter contains the most advice about poetry per se. “Would you please read my poems and tell me if I’m horrible at this?” This week marks the 115th anniversary of Rainer Maria Rilke’s first letter to Franz Xaver Kappus.
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