Literary Writers

Literary Writers
write other people’s words,
use successful people’s names,
recall famous people’s opinions.
In other words,
to be considered a writer one must parrot well
what has already been written
to somehow prove one is well read, clever
and knows how to use Google.

My brain recoils at the whole idea
of sucking in and spitting out
all that has already been said,
“in quotes” no less.

Shouldn’t a writer also be a thinker
who struggles over the why of things,
who sees, who looks and knows.
Not just quoting others who were thinkers.
I don’t write to prove my reading ability
or my memory
or how well I can use Google.
I write to make sense of my inner dialogue,
the uniqueness of how I see the world I live in
and what I know about what I perceive.

I guess I’ll never be a literary write,
nor quoted ad nauseam in literary courses,
but my words will be truthful
and my insights from a deeper place
than a library shelf.

Or maybe I’m just being too lazy
to work at fitting what I think about
into other people’s observations
to validate mine.

Maybe I’d rather share what I have learned for myself
by living my own life
rather than re-wording what others
and others and others have said
over and over again,
literally.
©Sharron R. McMillan