Letter to a Young Poet

"You’ve already overcome the greatest obstacle of all to the writing of poetry—you’ve accepted your heart and what it longs for as your muse."

Portrait of Rainer Maria Rilke (1902) by Helmuth Westhoff, Rilke’s brother-in-law.

By Michael Judge

Dear Frankie, 

You recently sent me your poems with a short note saying that with them you try, above all, to “speak the heart”—a lovely phrase. “She,” you said, “is my inspiration for poetry.” When you reach my age—poet or not—you’re generally expected to have some knowledge or wisdom to impart. As the Fool says to King Lear in Act 1, Scene 5, “Thou shouldst not have been old till thou hadst been wise.” 

Old I am—more than 20 years your senior and twice the age of brave John Keats when he finally fell silent in Rome. Wise? I’m working on it. Fifty-seven years on this earth and I can still think of no pursuit greater than putting pen to paper on the banks of a lazy river—or anywhere else for that matter. But then again, I’ve never been much for physical exertion. Indeed, I’ve long agreed with the great Western philosopher Pooh that “Doing nothing often leads to the very best of something.”

B…