“Tear it up,” says Kurt Vonnegut

by Richard Subber | Jan 5, 2022 | Joys of reading, Language

I won’t show you mine…

You can learn something from Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (1922-2007)

Now, Vonnegut isn’t my favorite writer. Yes, of course, I’ve read Slaughterhouse-Five. OK, that puts me in the “I’ve read Slaughterhouse-Five” category. To paraphrase Woody Allen, the novel has to do with World War II and stuff…

OK, sorry about that downer intro. I don’t incline to sound like a Vonnegut fan when I say that the following anecdote is a glorious insight that moves me.

In 2006, shortly before his death, Vonnegut gave some advice to five New York City high school guys who had written to him:

“. . . Here’s an assignment for tonight,

and I hope Ms. Lockwood will flunk you if you don’t do it:

Write a six line poem, about anything, but rhymed . . .

Make it as good as you possibly can.

But don’t tell anybody what you’re doing.

Don’t show it or recite it to anybody,

not even your girlfriend or parents or whatever, or Ms. Lockwood. OK?

Tear it up into teeny-weeny pieces, and discard them . . .

You will find that you have already been

gloriously rewarded for your poem.

You have experienced becoming,

learned a lot more about what’s inside you,

and you have made your soul grow.”

Oh yes, I’m writing my poem now.

Don’t show me yours.

* * * * * *

“…watchers in the crystal sphere…”

”Night watch,” a poem

“…friends who pass the time…”

click here

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