23 Jul You Are a Writer

Our farmer’s market is ripe with fresh offerings, a street-side cornucopia of fruits, vegetables, meats, and flower arrangements so colorful they burst like firecrackers from white-wrapped cones.  Though fresh and local, almost everything here can be found at other farmer’s markets across our city.  One booth, however, offers something original, clever, and inspired.

Poems. Your Topic. Your Price.

It’s one of the busiest booths on the block.

I ambled over and clotted with the crowd, watching them speak with eager readers. After listening to the recipient’s request, the poets mulled over the topic for a few minutes and then custom-crafted and created a poem on clackity old-school typewriters that made endearing typos.

When it was my turn, I asked for a poem about inspiration because sometimes that goes dry, doesn’t it? Poets need inspiration, too, and both found and offered it that morning, feeding themselves and then me, their fellow writer.

Coaching clients always wonder exactly when they can refer to themselves as writers. My question to them is always the same. “Are you writing?”

“Yes, of course,” they answer. Who knows that better than I? I read their works, heart-wrung and hard-won week after week, watching them grow in craft and creation.

“Then you’re a writer,” I tell them. “You’re writing.”

Publication, awards, and sales levels are lovely, but they do not qualify someone as a writer.  Writing defines writers. These poets are writers because they write every week toward putting their words into readers’ hands and hearts.

Did you pen any words this week, either longhand, laptop, or clackity, old-school typewriter? Good.

You are a writer. Does your writing time have a set-aside, sacred place in your busy life? May I cheer you on?