Guard Duty by Tomas Tranströmer
1.
Listen: if you are writing, then you are a writer. That’s it. That’s all there really is. It took me a long time to finally embrace the truth of it, but here I am. There is no true measure to what makes one a writer; don’t let anybody else define it for you. I believe that you just have to find yourself writing, is all. Is everything.
2.
And if you’re not writing: it is a holy task that you must appoint to yourself, to make a space for it in your life. I say holy, because it is the closest thing I can get to peace—that place where who I am and what I do can meet, where will and purpose can sit side by side and not argue about semantics. I say task, because writing is work. It’s a gargantuan amount of work that would take your whole life. You are not a special snowflake for choosing to write. It was just what you were meant to do, so do it.
3.
Listen: writing is both a noble pursuit and a thankless job, and yet I love it unabashedly because it’s saved me even when I didn’t want to be saved. I am tethered to it the way an old tree has dug deep its roots into the earth, unto itself.
4.
About a month ago I met someone who has dedicated the past few years purely to writing and nothing else. He has given up and shifted a lot of things in his life just to be able to do it every day. I could tell, just by looking at his face, how right that decision was. I could tell that writing will always come first over everything. I could tell because I recognise in him parts of myself, although I’m not all the way there yet. I admired his courage, perhaps even envied him. He sat across from me and inhabited another world entirely, one that he created, and how amazing was that? I know it doesn’t make me less of who I am—just that we have different paths. Yet how amazing is it that our paths would cross, perhaps entwine?
4.
Listen: do what you have to do. You have to fight for what you love any fucking way you can, but you can also take your time. You are a writer because you are writing, and you are a writer even if you are not writing. It is allowed. Forgive yourself. This is yours, the life you make. Nobody can take it away from you.
5.
Listen: the new year is arriving in a few hours. The past twelve months have led you to this. It was rough, but you are alive. And now you are here. I love you wholly, and fiercely, as I have never loved before.
Guard Duty
Tomas Tranströmer
Translated by Robert BlyI’m ordered out to a big hump of stones
as if I were an aristocratic corpse from the Iron Age.
The rest are still back in the tent sleeping,
stretched out like spokes in a wheel.In the tent the stove is boss: it is a big snake
that swallows a ball of fire and hisses.
But it is silent out here in the spring night
among chill stones waiting for dawn.Out here in the cold I start to fly
like a shaman, straight to her body—
some places pale from her swimming suit.
The sun shone right on us. The moss was hot.I brush along the side of warm moments,
but I can’t stay there long.
I’m whistled back through space—
I crawl among the stones. Back to here and now.Task: to be where I am.
Even when I’m in this solemn and absurd
role: I am still the place
where creation works on itself.Dawn comes, the sparse tree trunks
rake on color now, the frostbitten
forest flowers form a silent search party
after something that has disappeared in the dark.But to be where I am…and to wait.
I am full of anxiety, obstinate, confused.
Things not yet happened are already here!
I feel that. They’re just out there:a murmuring mass outside the barrier.
They can only slip in one by one.
They want to slip in. Why? They do
one by one. I am the turnstile.
—
This is from Selected Poems: 1954-1986 by Tomas Tranströmer, edited by Robert Hass, published by The Ecco Press, 1987.
fishslumber
I needed this. Thank you.
Guard Duty by Tomas Tranströmer « No Exit
[…] “The past twelve months have led you to this. It was rough, but you are alive. And now you are here. I love you wholly, and fiercely, as I have never loved before.” […]
Allie
Ahhhh thank you for this! I needed to hear it too. Here’s to a new year….
Darren
“But to be where I am, and to wait.”
Sure, 2014 was a “crawl among the stones”, cold and confusing, yet rewarding in its own way; productive of courage, hope, and above all that eternal virtue – patience.
Happy New Year! 2015 slips through the turnstile.
PS. Thank you for the candid definition of ” the writer”. Peace to each purposeful writer!
D
Thank you T, your messages are always great to recieve – you are a good writer Happy New Year
Susan Scheid
Happy New Year, T., and your words paired with Transtromer’s certainly get the year off to the best of starts!
Dj
Here’s to not knowing what comes next. Happy new year, T.
teevramadhyam
Reblogged this on chronicles from the mad city.
The Southern Observer
God, I know more than anyone that I’m more disqualified than ever to leave a comment on someone’s blog. But I’ve been reading your words for years, and just now, I have the courage to tell you that you’ve moved me, you’ve made me better than I once was. Thank you kindly.
iseeyousunshine
Happy New Year. Much enjoyed and thank you for the great definition of writer quite encouraging.
Summer
It was rough, but you are alive. And now you are here. I love you wholly, and fiercely, as I have never loved before.
What beautiful words! And such a nice read for me on a sleepless night. Thank you.