Market Ability

There will always be people who appreciate your efforts, dear Chris... bestsellers are not always the best books, blockbusters are not always the best movies. :-)

Blessings and good luck - S.

There are joys and burdens when having our passion to write - the doubt, the fear.....but we continue because truth be told, we must. It's like breathing.

An honest write, Chris.

Ah, but it's the act of writing, the heady joy of fine wine.
I like this poem. Well worth the effort.
Swagger on dear friend. Your work is a breath of fresh air.

I completely agree with Wilhelmine~it is the diving through myriad words that lend themselves to individual translation in each of our mind's that is the ambroisa of the writer~
Your swagger is well earned, dontcha ever let anyone knock your legs out from underneath you~I told you the first time I read your poem that it was an exqusite and fierce rendering of modern day America~I told you to send it to the New Yorker and it was their lack of sensibilities and discernment that had their poetry staff of editorial dolts pass it~A lot of us love your swagger, and you I know get joy from the written words that escape your mind~and that's all that matters
Write on =D

A brilliant achievement

Annals of justice

If you write contrary to your convictions just to market your work, that's one thing. If you write from your heart, that's not prostitution.

*sigh*big sigh* I agree with John. I'm sorry one of your works was rejected, but I enjoy reading everything you write. Thank you for posting to our group.

Chris, this really blessed me. It is like looking into the mirror and seeing something tender and beautiful and very vulnerable. Bruce and I love art, that is...we love to create art but are just so poor at marketing our work. We retreat and then say that we "are doing it for the sake of art" and then there is that bit of hope that rises again, only to be met with that little voice. Just great Chris. So easy to relate to .

As a composition teacher what I loved about good writing was good transitions. You write,

'The euphoria breaks,

Optimism flags,

Swagger disappears.'

This is really a fantastic lead in to your final stanza. It has humor, but also real feeling.

Wow! What a range of interesting interpretations. It is an example of how wriiting works. A writer has to first apprehend some aspect of reality, run it through the filters or screens (after Kenneth Burke) of his or her knowledge and experience, put it into some aesthetically worthwhile form (which, I believe, includes making it reasonably accessible--else why bother?) and presenting it to the reader. The reader's job is to apprehend, understand, and appreciate the reality the writer offers. Understanding means to come to know something in terms of what one already knows. One's range and depth of understanding increases with the amount and range of one's knowledge and experience. Appreciation is partly a function of knowledge and experience, but also of values.

What I was trying to convey in my little passing feeling poem was my occasional dismay at my lack of a disposition to follow through to always present my writing in a way that achieves the greatest communication with the greates number of people. I used the word "prostitute" (probably ill-advisedly) only to mean "selling myself," because I put myself into what I write. It's not that I haven't closed the writing process by publishing many, many times. And, it's not that I don't try to publish--anyone who writes knows that it generally takes trying, trying, and trying, and trying over again.

I wasn't feeling sorry for myself in this poem; I was merely trying to convey a reality that I am sure everyone who posts on Gather recognizes. I have to say that Karen got it explicitly, and I appreciate William's acuity of perception. Thank you sincerely to everyone for your kind words and compassion--can you get me an agent?

Chris, I have never really tried to publish outside Gather (or Gather type sites). Most of you would not believe the shyness inside me. Yes, I am in many ways shy. I guess I appear brave. I do though look forward to reading the real comments people make when I publish here.

artist's role

Oh, now you have me smiling.

Deja vu. Thank you for sharing this @ Art - Any Medium!