Remember when writers had sex appeal? When the Bohemian artist was considered an outlaw, rather than an outcast? The days of boozing and fucking the days away and then putting the torrent of emotions that accompanied you to paper, or canvas, or brick, or whatever your chosen medium was. Kerouac must be turning in his grave.

Modern day writers look like your run-of-the-mill business suit-clad members of society. Famous authors these days are J.K. Rowling, who could run for Prime Minister with her public image of mother and worker. Not to lessen the woman's tribulations, she has been through a lot, but this is an example. We writers, as a breed, are no longer cutting new paths or shaking up society. We're quietly allotting ourselves a corner of the world and keeping to it, content to live comfortably off our words, rather than using them to change the world around us.

I've always believed that passion, fiery speech and the power of the written word could overcome anything. The pen is mightier than the sword, so they say, and it's true! But it seems we writers, the very keepers and pioneers of the written word, have forgotten its awesome power, we have forgotten it's ability to capitulate society and change the very fabric of being of the whole human race. Perhaps to have started this entry with examples of galavanting, but the point is that sure, we can be the assembly-line products of what the world thinks we should be, but why should we settle for what they want and not strive for what we want?

Writers, we have the power of the word! Use it! Be what you seek to be, change what you seek to change. For God's sake, shake things up. Joyce Carol Oates said art was meant to disturb, so go use the might of your words to make uncomfortable the status quo. Disturb with the truth, reveal the truth in your fictions. Write with the heart you were born with, not the mind the world has thrust upon you!

Just a thought.

Deviously Yours,
SpeakingInPoetry