Must I write?

I haven't updated the blog in almost a week it seems. Readership is falling off. What readership there is. Ha.

Well, I think I'll recap some things and post some things here to let you inside my head a little bit. Just a little bit though. This blog is primarily for friends and phones exist for a reason. Give me a call.

Anyway, here's something I've been thinking about a lot lately from Rilke:

You ask whether your poems are good. You send them to publishers; you compare them with other poems; you are disturbed when certain publishers reject your attempts. Well now, since you have given me permission to advise you, I suggest that you give all that up....
Ask yourself this: Must I write? Dig deep into yourself for a true answer. And if it should ring its assent, if you can confidently meet this serious question with a simple, "I must," then build your life upon it.

Franz Kappus was the young poet Rilke was writing to. Have you read much by Kappus? I haven't. Anyhow, I don't want to comment on this too much. Except to say that I edited Rilke down a bit. And I could have edited him more. And I think he may have went a bit too easy on the young poet. But then that's me. It's my nature to be a critical editor and remove excess words.