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© 2013 Danny Peart Danny was born in Port Dalhousie, Ontario, and currently resides in Vancouver, B.C. He is supported by his wife, Janette Lindley, two teen sons, Max and Nick, and a Yellow Lab, Mila. (She is responsible for all editing.) He has worked as a bartender, a Personal Trainer, a Globe and Mail paperboy, and the Parts Manager for a farm equipment dealer. He has studied words with Gloria Sawai, Sandra Birdsell, Edna Alford, Sean Virgo, Carolyn Smart and Raymond Carver. (only from Carver's books, though.) In 2012, he published a slim volume of poems, cheerfully titled Ruined By Love. He is most comfortable reading and writing in a quiet café. Though he seeks the mountains often for hiking, skiing and snowshoeing

The Artist's Calling

Writing is the only profession where no one considers
you ridiculous if you earn no money. Jules Renard

It could be that you've been called
to be an artist.
You poor sod.

There's no dental plan,
paycheques seem irregular at best,
your mental health will be suspect.
Working hours are long and uneven.
Holidays? All unpaid.

Women might be drawn to you at parties,
but would be fools to marry you.
Bankers will look at you as if to say,
"You're kidding me, aren't you, an artist?"

Sometimes your friends will be artists, too.
Poor buggers.

Try to remember that it's not your fault.
A call came in
only you could answer.

 

(Opening line from R. M. Rilke)
Letters To a Young Poet

 

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