Category Archives: poems & short jabs

Leading the Life

You can’t
tell people
about your
life you
have to
tell them
about their
life &
yes I
know I
should have
said lives
but that
takes the
ring out
of it.

 

Still,
your recognizing
my “mistake”
implies
you have
credentials
& therefore
are entitled
to criticize.

 

I’m not
off to
a very
good start
here but
if you’ve
got credentials
you know
where I’m
coming from:
even if
you talk
about your
life you
have to
make it
sound like
you’re talking
about their
life or
lives,
what-the-
fuck-ever —
the readers.
That way
they’ll identify
with you
& maybe
even finish
your book.

 

Word
will get
out– “There’s
this guy
writing about
our life.”

 

Maybe not
their real
life but
the one
they lead,
which is
a lot
less dangerous,
when you
get down
to it,
leading
a life
rather than
having one.

 

At least
this is
the advice
I was
given in
so many
words by
a guy
at Princeton
who read
the manuscript
for my
new novel,
The Cliff Has No Edge.

 

He said
I had
raw talent
that needed
polishing.

 

& then,
on the
off chance
I might
make it
big down
the line
& he
could cash
in on
knowing me,
he wished
me luck
& told
me to
hang in there.