in the face of –

darling, you simply don’t have what it takes – 

you have to believe that you do.

because if you don’t, then what the hell is it all for?

what is it for,

if you are a mere memory, ever fading, whispered on the wind that will never brush your long-gone skin?

what is it for,

if your life’s work is only what you have created at the behest of others,

filed away in a forgotten archive

until, archive found, a person never to be known to you decides that since

your name is unknown to them and unknown to whom they are beholden

you were irrelevant anyway?

 

and then you are gone

 

what is it for,

if you cannot believe in yourself?

what is it for?

what is the essence of you?

what does what you have left behind

 

say,

 

about you?

 

do not let them tell you

that for which you yearn is of no relevance

that the only way is the way from which you turn

that success is not worth chasing

that the aching in your bones is only physical

that you can take pills for that

that you can put all that to one side

 

that

 

is wrong.

 

Keep writing.

That is who you are.

 

---

This is my belated entry to the Dverse Open Link Night, that lovely poets pub was open for business for poetry old and new, of any kind. I, on the other hand, was not open, so I hope there are a few poets lounging around today, nursing a pint of craft beer or a single malt whiskey.

It surely isn’t too late to take part – why not pop on over there to join in or just read some varied and wonderful work?