POET WRITER AUTHOR GENTLEMAN OUTSIDER
There ain’t no sin and there ain’t no virtue.
There’s just stuff people do.”
~ John Steinbeck
___________
He was and still is a huge influence on my writing to this day. His work, you may find is also an influence on my new book, “The Bones of Our Existence, A Journal 2046”. The daily struggle of mankind and humanity, compassion, will always exist. Bukowski once said it’s how we walk through the fire. Steinbeck’s books showed us how.
In the end?
We are all survivors.
~R.M. Engelhardt
The most important things to do in the world are to get something to eat, something to drink and somebody to love you.
~ Brendan Behan
Happy St. Patrick’s Day
So
You want to be a poet?
Then stand in line
Because just like every other damn poet
That ever came before you
You’ll have to write
And Twitter, Tumblr, Fumblr
Whatever, will never save
Your sorry ass
And the Pushcart Prize?
They won’t reward you
For writing a Facebook
Status that’s poetic
And just like
Emily, no one no
Publisher will ever
Come knocking
At your door
Looking for your poems
So listen;
Because there is no new
Jack Kerouac, no new Bukowski
And no new Poe
And Shakespeare?
He threw down his pencil
A longtime ago after Marlowe
Bought the farm
So just like all of the most
Famous poets of old expect
No compliments, no fortune
And no dough and learn how
To live on noodles
And believe me
When I say that
When you tell Mom & Dad
That you want to be
A poet someday?
Don’t expect them to
Embrace you or let you
Ever move back home again
Because remember
That this is the life that you chose
And if you ever finally find
Finally write that one piece
That one amazing epiphany
That says it all and that says
Everything and that has the
Power to knock the world
On its ass?
Then maybe one day
You’ll be able to look
In the mirror and say
It was all worth it.
_____________
R.M. ENGELHARDT
Writers?
We have to write. If we don’t our brains explode
and the poetry, words and ideas go all over.
We have to drink for inspiration. And we have to smoke at least a pack a day.
Why?
Because it’s the law. That’s why.
And ? We must drink large amounts of coffee
everyday just to stay awake.
I didn’t make these rules.
I blame Hemingway.
But in the end it’s only the words that matter
That’s all
~ R.M.
Because all ideas and words will burn a hole in your mind unless you write them down.
~ R.M. Engelhardt
R.M. ENGELHARDT 