I had a meeting with my favorite professor today to discuss the poetry had given to our class to workshop. I feel like it went horrible because I started treating him like he was my analyst, which is not his job. He was very nice, but I feel awful about it.
He asked me who are my role models as poets. I wanted to say Sylvia Plath, but decided not to sound so trite and said Charles Bukowski. He called me on it and said that I should look toward Sylvia Plath and Rita Dove as my role models. He also told me that should develop a thicker skin towards having my work read, and the only way to do that is to send work out into the world and face rejection. I should embrace the difficult professors as way of learning about the craft and about why I am here.
He also asked me the question I hate. Do I see myself as a writer or as a poet? You can't say both, even if it is the truth. So I said poet, because writing poetry brings me joy and feeds my soul. Writing prose challenges me and I feel the need to embrace challenge.
So, I am still trying to figure out who I am at 35.
1 comment:
Don't worry about it. I'm 37, and still totally clueless about what I want to do when I grow up. At least you know that you want to do something related with writing-- you're a step ahead of me that way!
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