What I wish someone would have told me sooner I ought to have:
1. One good philosopher to read, make you think about language, and argue with. If you have a real one nearby, try to talk to and write for him or her. Don't settle for anyone who seems lifeless or is without a sense of humor (good advice for all relationships!) or is without passion. At the same time, you should have to struggle (sometimes a lot) to "get" what his or her point is and why it's important; that kind of work will teach you subtlety and patience.
Suggestions: Plato, Nietzche, Emerson, Benjamin, Foucault, Barthes, Cixous, Derrida
2. At least five writers whose next book you physically ache to read. It doesn't really matter the genre. They also do not have to still be alive. Practice figuring out how their words work so well.
Suggestions: Eduardo Galeano, Andrei Codrescu, Hayden Carruth, Heather McHugh, John Crowley, Helene Cixous, Campbell McGrath
3. At least five writers whose work confounds you in some way and that you just don't "get" right now. Keep them on your shelf until you do. Practice not dismissing someone or something just because you don't "get" it immediately.
Suggestions: Wallace Stevens, Gaston Bachelard, George Oppen, Allen Ginsberg, Soren Kierkegaard, Fernando Pessoa
4. A huge hardcover dictionary. Train yourself to read it. Look for a new word every day, or read one definition of a word you find at random every day.
5. A good poetry anthology. Make sure there are at least ten names in it you never heard of, as well as the important names to have heard of. Make sure it covers a lot more than simply twentieth century poets.
6. A sense of who the important poets are to have heard of. Learn why someone thinks these people are so important. Don't be concerned only with the twentieth century, either.
7. Fall in love with at least one poet who wrote more than one hundred years ago. Memorize one poem of his or hers a year.
Suggestions: Ono No Kamachi, Li Po, Tu Fu, Rumi, Ghalib, Chaucer, Thomas Wyatt, Edmund Spenser, John Donne, Ben Jonson, Robert Herrick, Milton, Marvell, Pope, Blake, Goethe, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Clare, Keats, Whitman, Dickinson, Hopkins
8. Learn to love at least one poet who wrote more than two hundred years ago. Memorize at least one poem of his or hers a year.
Suggestions: see list above
9. Practice some kind of spiritual discipline. Try to make your inner life clearer and less anxiety-ridden. This will involve far more risk and work than you might think, but if you can practice giving up your immediate feelings for more truthful observations, you'll have done a lot. Practice taking time to think about things. Try to find a way to, if not forgive, at least make a quiet space around both yourself and any people, things or ideas that disturb you, so that you're not so frightened you can't see them as complex beings. If you can, volunteer somewhere, walk dogs at Animal Friends, read to children at the library, teach people to read, help serve at a soup kitchen.
Suggestions: Thich Nhat Hanh's Peace is Every Step or Pema Chodron's Start Where You Are, both of which come primarily out of Buddhism, but which are aimed at a more general audience of seekers. For Christians, maybe Meister Eckhardt, Thomas Merton, and John Shelby Spong. I also like Marcus Aurelius and Lao Tzu.
10. Practice writing everyday for at least an hour. Try to find a time everyday when you're not likely to be interrupted by work or pleasure and sit down somewhere and write. Even if you think you have nothing to write about, describe the sky or the people walking by or what is so disturbing about boredom.
Last Updated:June 6, 2001