An Exhaustive Search

One of These Days

You want to be a successful writer,
One praised by countless
Whose fans' hearts are touched
Even by your very presence.

All I must say is what you seek
Is difficult to achieve;
I know because I seek the same,
And my advice to you
Is don't let this desire consume you
To the point you neglect everything,
And when I say everything,
I mean the important stuff in life,
The very stuff you need
To pull through in this world.

Your desire's deep,
Why wouldn't it be when
It is your greatest desire?
When you look at people in your field,
Especially the writers who achieved fame,
Never mind the ones who achieved it at death,
But the ones who lived to brag about it,
You want to punch them in the face.

They have what you want,
That's the reason you want to hurt them,
You may think you hate them,
But haven't you thought that
You're actually hating on them
Because you aren't happy with yourself?
Maybe, you have thought such things,
But have you probed deep enough
To realize that you're hating
On yourself in the process?

Before you get all defensive,
I'm not saying this to criticize you,
As some enemy at your sight,
But as some friend who understands,
One who knows how it's like
To desire success in which
Everybody hears your name.

Believe me, I know how it feels
To be jealous about everyone
Who has the stuff I want,
Especially if it's my greatest desires,
But know that you're wasting
All your energy looking down
On people simply for being
At a higher status than you.

All that energy spent on being jealous
Is better spent on writing,
And the more time you spend writing,
The more improvements you are bound
To make, and in the process,
You give people proof that you are
Worth their time.

You're going to hate me on this,
But that's okay 'cause at least
I have told you the truth,
That is, the right way
To pursue your passions.

Why might you hate me?
For one, you won't be making noise
When you write, you'll be working
In silence, but when you're
Spending all that time voicing your distastes
On those famous writers, you'll be making
A lot of noise, one that warrants
Negative attention.

You want the immediate attention,
Even if everyone will hate you in the end,
But it's not worth it, you're better
Off working in silence, and when
You work in silence, you'll be
Benefitting yourself in the long run.

Let the world hear you
Once you're done writing,
Only by the time you publish it.
So what if people hate your work
Or nobody knows about it?
Just be proud that you wrote
The stuff in the first place.