How does a Poet Put Bread on the Table

Adrienne Rich refers in his article that how does a poet put bread on the table? Rarely, if ever, by poetry alone. Of other poet I know,most teach,often part-time, without security but year round. Inherited wealth accounts for the careers of some poets: to inherit wealth is to inherit time. That means that poetry can not provide too much wealth for poet’s living. Even these realities stand before poets, they still try their best to spare time into literary creation to gain inner satisfaction. In order to pursue the pure inspiration, many poets choose to work less. Less labour ensures there is no interruption to put out their flicker. Rich says that often such time fees like a luxury, guiltily seized when it can be had, fearfully taken because it does not seem like work, his abeyance, but like “wasting time” in a society where personal importance can hinge acting busy, where the phrase “keeping busy” is a common idiom. The creation of poetry requires for free time to swim in imagination, while capitalism is based on the abridgment of that freedom.

In society, people keep working like machine, without space and time to free their thoughts, devoting in “idle things”. The purpose of their life is to pursue more physical needs rather than spiritual needs. For example, a famous factory in china named Foxconn, the whole day of its workers are spent in working and working. The military-style management completely control its workers, from physics to minds. “ production first” makes workers lose freedom to think and meditate, and what they do everyday is keeping working until they are tired. Maybe, someone will wonder why they not choose to leave this factory. The reason is that they need money to support their families. There are also someone believing that since they need money, working like a robot is a good choice. Anyhow, they earn enough money to support their lives. However, statistics show that the average annual suicide rate in Foxccon is very high. Since their basic needs are not in shortage, why so many workers choose to suicide. According to researches, the oppressed work have driven many workers into psychological illness and choose to suicide.

Therefore, the basic needs is important, the spiritual importance also can not be ignored. But, how to make balance between living and spiritual?
Perhaps some people like to live in ignorance. Due to their laziness and cowardice, they are not dare to take their first step. For those eccentric artists, they look down upon other people’s misunderstandings and sneers, and pursue their own dreams, with their sincere love. Just as Billy Graham said that we are more than a body and mind, we are soul. If human abandon their soul, they have no difference with animal, who are driven by physical need rather than the guidance of spiritual needs.

It is harmful to put too much emphasis on one side, while ignore the other——your eyes are filled with material, your heart will be empty; your eyes only are occupied by art, your life will be sorrow. The former is Wang Xifeng, the latter is Lin Daiyu. Life is a balance beam, so the middle way is beneficial. In Mr. Liu’s article, he writes that “A. The most difficult Kunfu for anyone is to love someone. B. The second? Make True Art. C. If we can do the first or second most difficult, then we can surely do the third: Changing our minds. Most of us, however, can’t even get a ‘c’.” Step by step, people should first changing their minds to take inner needs into consideration rather than just devote to grasping too much wealth, then they can make true art, which escape the limitation of secular. But the most important thing for people to do is to practice their dreams with love. So, Poetry, Freedom, and Love will go for you at last.