"Letters to a young poet.."

My friend and incredibly talented writer Adam Love gave a lecture this morning titled "Letters to a Young Poet," in which he so beautifully addressed the nature of the MFA program, how it's about so much more than just getting a degree, that writing is living a lifestyle as opposed to practicing a profession, and how Rainer Maria Rilke basically set up the model of the low-residency MFA program, in his remarkable Letters to a Young Poet, the collection of letters he wrote to Franz Kappus, the young, confused, anxiety-ridden poet. Adam addressed the difficulty of explaining to others our reasons for writing, for paying $40,000 to earn a degree that isn't "practical" in the way an MBA might be practical. He addressed the necessary loneliness of being a writer, our obsession with not only language but what it means to be human..."The writing life is lonely, bred from your solitude..." he said, and he quoted the poet and former VCFA student Andrew Nurkin, who notes that the MFA is so much more than a degree, that "The MFA is a set of experiences, relationships, and revelations..."

There's so much more I could say but don't have the time right now, so I'll leave you with an excerpt from one of Rilke's letters:

"No one can advise or help you -- no one. There is only one thing you should do. Go into yourself. Find out the reason that commands you to write; see whether it has spread its roots into the very depths of your heart; confess to yourself whether you would have to die if you were forbidden to write. This most of all: ask yourself in the most silent hour of your night: must I write? Dig into yourself for a deep answer. And if this answer rings out in assent, if you meet this solemn question with a strong, simple "I must", then build your life in accordance with this necessity; your whole life, even into its humblest and most indifferent hour, must become a sign and witness to this impulse."