Fortune telling…

– Kurt Vonnegut, A Man Without a Country

Soft pastel-A lotus blooms
painting © ayes juaneda

Back in the late 1970’s, I was offered the opportunity to become part of a small writing group put together by the poet Alan Dugan. Borrowing a friend’s keys, I spent a week alone in a tent sized kitchen in an otherwise empty house in Pennsylvania, putting together the five poems that I needed to send to him to be considered for the group.

My work was accepted and once a week for several months about ten of us met with Dugan at a small apartment on the upper east side of Manhattan where we read and discussed our work.

Dugan encouraged me in my writing and at one point, approached me privately and said “if this is what you really want to do, then get a job that doesn’t stress you, like a cashier in a supermarket, so you have the energy to go home and write.” But, he added, you’ll never make any great deal of money at writing, especially with poetry.

So I made a choice.

I don’t know that I made the right one.

But – I’m glad that I have the opportunity to try once again…

It’s Friday…who will you be reading this weekend?

[h/t to David Kanigan who led me to this artist who led me to the quote…]