The Novelty

He’s a writer,
A poet,
A novelty,
But he’s unpublished,
Invalidated,
I wonder if I could play the game?
Do I need the obsession?
Vulnerable to the fickle opinion of strangers,
Could I stand the rejection letters?
Could I stand the bad reviews?
Could I stand the poor sales?
Could I stand to be misunderstood?
Could I stand to be ignored?
The jaded agents and publishers who have
seen it all before,
Could I compromise to fit their market?
Their commercial demographic,
Sign your life away fool,
Don’t quit your day job just yet,
Congratulations you’re just increased your debts,
Could I stand the bitchiness of other writers?
Could I stand their spite?
I’m the unpublished writer and poet with
an audience of one,
‘Dare to fail’ people say with eyes equally
full of cliché,
But when you set goals to measure success you
invite the concept of failure,
And failure makes you stop doing that thing,
That once was therapeutic,
That once was fun,
Success is when what you want to say appears
on the page in front of you,
Like this.