Listening to Voices
The endless struggle for relevance in a creative world
Been reading a lot lately about the lives of the great artists, the ones that rise about the commercialization of creative work, the ones that have found art in the blood of their veins. There are very few who truly fall in this category. Sylvia Plath, Jack Kerouac, Henry Miller, Charles Bukowski, Walt Whitman, and Arthur Rimbaud, just to name a few. There are others, certainly. And from their graves they inspire me. Their life-long battle against the mediocre and the trite and the whims of society’s comfortable consumerism is the soul of the artist.
And why is that so very hard to emulate? The greats are the greats for reasons unattainable, yes. Still. why does anyone who writes prose or poetry, paints, sculpts, or plays a song never find what they are looking for?
Not a big fan of Taylor Swift’s music. Also, not a hater. But in a recent album, in one specific song, she touches a nerve. She writes of the modern artist flailing about, trying to catch a little spark of the greats. She appears to understand the inevitable struggle to achieve the unachievable in a world of Instagram, instant gratification, and superheroes.
“You’re not Dylan Thomas. I’m not Patti Smith. This ain’t the Chelsea Hotel. We’re modern idiots.”
Reading Yeats, Patti Smith, Wordsworth, and Stevens, and feeling so much the outsider, as it should be. Yet, I try, we try, and that is the element of the process that also must be celebrated, not only for the writer but also as a way for any of us to best live a life.
David W. Berner is the author of several books of award-winning fiction and memoir. His latest, Daylight Saving Time: The power of growing older is available now. His debut poetry collection, Garden Tools is due out in October 2025 from Finishing Line Press. His novella, American Moon will be published by Regal House Publishing in 2026.
Shared your post with two of my fellow classmates from Memoir II. As writers - good, bad, indifferent - we have to rise above the clamor to find our own voice. I truly believe there is a little Plath, Thomas, Bukowski, etc. in all of us. It doesn't matter whether or not we achieve their greatness. All that matters is that we continue to write how we see life.