These are the things I wish someone had told
me when I was younger.
don’t follow the herd.
listen for your words.
your words are with you, anytime, anywhere.
when you’re at a bus stop.
when you’re shocked and reeling
when you don’t know how you’re feeling
words will hold you.
when you’re trying hard to impress
or your best friend laughed you into silence
words will steady you.
remember: the word ‘inspiration’
means breathe in
because inspiration comes when you’re not
trying
take the first word that comes and times by
three pages
they don’t have to be good, the work increases
in stages
it takes time before lines reverberate through
the ages.
remember to breathe out.
expiration.
let the words out before you run out of time
someday
we’re all going to die
so before your expiration date
set yourself an inspiration date
take your pen and paper out
and get to know their tastes
they’re insatiable for every flavour
you can create, let nothing be off-limits
as you heap up your plate.
Then let your mind binge
on what delights and inspires it.
It’ll beg for exercise and then
your pen’s right behind it.
It’s a simple equation, like living and
death
traced in your visions and the rhythm of breath
what flows in must flow out.
What you choose to imbibe
becomes the lines you inscribe.
Becomes deeper every time that you write.
So put yourself in service to those words.
Let them herd you and surge through your breath
‘til it burns.
Let them learn you and unearth you
from your hurts, follow the urge to go further
leave your world upturned.
remember
in the beginning, there was the word.
that was always enough
to love.
