Bosc Pears and Craft

I switched my major multiple times in college. But one thing remained the same. I took a writing course every semester. Courses on poetry, memoir writing, publishing. A lot of self-congratulatory praise between creative writing peers. It there was one lesson that has stayed with me for over 20 years.

It was in my freshman year. I took a creative writing class with a very intimidating professor. He wore a beret pretentiously to the side. He held his hand under his chin and "hmmmm"ed each time we shared our work. We were all eager to please him, despite his non-committal nods.

Eccentrically he walked into class one day with 3 Bosc Pears. He placed them in the middle of the long conference table that we all sat around. "They wouldn't let me use nude models." He barked.

Obviously confused, we sat there stunned. "Hone your craft. Artists across campus, walk into class, sit down and have to paint whatever their professor puts in front of them." Again, we still sat there. "Write!" he shouted. "Don't think, just write."

And so we did. And I wrote one of the w

orst poems I've ever written. But I learned an important lesson. Sometimes you just have to write. He was right, we ask other artists to produce on demand. We ask singers to sing. Painters to paint. But poets? We expect muse - inspiration - time. And maybe it's time for us to start writing on demand.