On Wednesday night, I walked home from a Derek Walcott reading with Mark Doty. We talked mostly about writing, but somehow, we intertwined the subject with details of our personal lives. Along the way, I told Mark that I had a fear of receiving hostile criticism. He stopped walking, looked at me with a smirk, and said, "you're telling me that."
Mark is notably famous in the poetry world for being extremely bold. A great deal of his work promotes the idea of homo-sexualism--one of the most controversial topics. Still, he's won the Nation Book Award and The T.S Eliot Prize, just to name a couple. Part of the reason why he won so many awards is perhaps because he has such an assertive writing style.
At the reading, Michael Sutton asked Walcott how he came to acquire such an eminent reputation. Walcott, at the age of eighty, laughed and said (something along these lines), "Writing poetry isn't about acquiring a reputation. It's about humiliating yourself by accentuating both the private and public emotions inside you. Poetry is about the self-annihilation of one's soul."
Doty's boldness and Walcott's annihilation theory stung me hard. They indirectly taught me to write about whatever the hell I want (as long as the material isn't hurting other people). My fear of hostile criticism has abated immensely, and the locked up treasure box rooted deep in my chest is about to be released. It's not aimed at the reader; it's aimed solely at me, and it comes wholly from me--and, by all means, if a reader wants to read my stuff, whether they think it's good or bad, I'm more than cool with it.
Now, the blog may proceed!
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