Good.

"You ask if your verses are good. You ask me. You have previously asked others. You send them to journals. You compare them with other poems, and you are troubled when certain editors reject your efforts. Now (as you have permitted me to advise you) I beg you to give all that up. You are looking outwards, and of all things that is what you must not now do....

Go inside yourself. Discover the motive that bids you write; examine whether it sends its roots down to the deepest places of your heart, confess to yourself whether you would have to die if writing were denied you. This before all: ask yourself in the quietest hour of your night : MUST I write? Dig down into yourself for a deep answer. And if this should be in the affirmative, if you may meet this solemn question with a strong and simple "I Must", then build your life according to this necessity; your life must, right to its most unimportant and insignificant hour, become a token and a witness of this impulse....

And if from this turning inwards, from this sinking into your private world, there come verses, you will not think to ask anyone whether they are good verses. You will not attempt, either, to interest journals in these works : for you will see in them your own dear genuine possession, a portion and a voice of your life. A work of art is good if it has grown out of necessity. In this manner of its origin lies its true estimate: there is no other."
-Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

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My friend recently gave me this book, an early christmas gift prompted by a stout beer-steeped discussion of writing, soul-making, and the terror and bravery of reviving gifts and desires that have long been hidden, neglected or even forgotten. It was a timely and, I think even, God-inspired conversation that will deeply mark this turning point I feel myself to be in creatively.

This first letter by Rilke reminds me of the time when a man said to Jesus, "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit the kingdom? Jesus said, "Why do you say 'good'? No one is good except the Father". There are probably a bazillion super deep lessons that are taught from this gospel passage, but for me, I always walk away from it reminded that my approach to God, and to life in his kingdom, isn't about being good enough. I guess that's part of what I'm coming back to creatively - a throwing off of being "good".

But the discussion, and above excerpt, isn't only for those with outward and obvious creative gifts that want to be revived. It's for all of us who have lost something of ourselves along the way of life.

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I found myself in a beautiful little moment the other night, up way too late sitting in my bed, plucking at my guitar and singing song after song after song and at one point, I smiled thinking of Rilke and said, I Must.

What must YOU do?