I may have some talent, but it won’t get me very far. It might open doors. It might not. The world can be a fickle place, and it’s true that there are many, many people who are more talented than I. If, then, talent isn’t enough to get me very far, what is?
I would argue that persistence is. Endurance is. Discipline and commitment are. It’s akin to the race of the turtle and the hare. The hare may have the talent – the gift of quick feet – but he doesn’t have the mindset to stay the course. His talent leads him astray. It convinces him he can rest his feet on a settee and drink hot cocoa because his competitor can never, ever catch him. As he dozes off, he becomes aware of the crowd roaring. He stumbles to his feet, but it’s too late. He can never catch the turtle who has made it within inches of the finish line. The turtle has what the hare does not: an unwavering commitment to staying the course, to being persistent, to enduring despite knowing how much better and naturally gifted his competitor is, to using what talent he has and extending it further and further.
That is the thing with talents: they have responsibilities attached to them. To be given a talent is to be given responsibility. If the talent isn’t tended to, it withers or is outshone by people who do work with what they’re given. Talent may come naturally, but it still requires work. Even prodigies have to work with and on their talents. They have to continue to challenge themselves. They have to reach toward new heights. They can’t be content with staying at the same, flat, safe level; to do so is to be content with mediocrity, and mediocrity will not do. This is a race, and it’s a race designed for multiple winners. It’s simply that the winners have to to do the work. They have to choose to endure despite the hardships and the temptation to rest upon their talents. It’s to choose to persist and to be self-disciplined and diligent. It’s to put on the running shoes day after day after day and to run to the best of their ability. It’s to rest when needed, but it’s to do so with the understanding that rest is essential to their growth and their talent or talents.
What do you think? Is talent enough?
Image: Eric Magnuson (CC BY NC SA 2.0)
I am terribly protective of my writings and deathly afraid of taking the next step and getting actual feedback from a professional writer. Do you have any words of advice about finding an agent/editor/etc..(I’m not even sure who it would be to be honest!) that would allow me to get that one step closer to my goal of actually publishing a book of poems? Thank you.
ebrianneb Poetry’s a bit different. The traditional route is to submit your work to journals. Once you’ve had a few poems published in them, you’re more likely to be able to submit a manuscript to one of the poetry publishers/journals and to have it be accepted. That, of course, is dependent on who’s reading or judging the manuscripts, so you have to pay attention to that as well as to what kind of poetry the places have published recently.
You won’t need an agent, but an editor or mentor can be helpful. Some editors may look at your poems line by line – and that’s needed at times – but I’d recommend someone who’s primarily going to consider your work as a whole. I’d look for someone who’s knowledgeable and would recommend poets to read or different essays on poetics that could help with your growth. I also would look for someone who understands what you’re trying to accomplish but isn’t afraid of letting you know when a poem undercuts your purpose and would help you to identify overarching themes so that you can organize the collection in the best way possible.
You can self-publish, but I don’t know much about that. You’d have to consider other items such as cover designs. You may want to reach out to dustyjournal on Twitter. She’s self-published at least two collections of poems and has them available on Amazon.
I hope that helps.
Very well said! You kicked my butt into gear.
NatPaq I hope all goes well with whatever I’ve kicked you into gear for.