The oracle spoke unto me, saying:
O poet, your greatest temptations are those of Despair and of Pride.
For this reason you must learn the ways of Hope and of Humility.
***
You are not to be pitied; nor are you to seek pity; nor are you to pity yourself.
Your suffering is no greater than that which is the common lot of mortals. You are merely given the eyes to see and the mouth to speak the jewel that is formed in the fire, and thereby help to ease the suffering of your fellow creatures.
***
You are not to be glorified; nor are you to seek glory; nor are you to glorify yourself.
Yours is not to be glorified but to glorify. You are but an instrument for the divine purpose, a servant to the will of the gods. You, poet, are merely the messenger between heaven and earth. You did nothing to deserve your gifts, which are granted you at the pleasure of the gods.
Thus spoke the oracle.
***
Would I refuse the diamond that is produced in the crucible in exchange for the coal that lights the evening hearth?
--It is a great temptation, because even poets are human.
***
I am not allowed to eat when others are at table; I am not allowed to make merry when they gather round the fire. I must instead remain forever hungry and cold, my abode the dark and lonely night.
***
The poet is condemned to remain outside, forever outside, and this is why he sees what others cannot. Only in the cold emptiness of night, far from the warmth of the dinner table, do the stars become visible.
***
Far happier it is to have food in one's belly and friends at one's side than to stand alone in the cold dark longing for the unreachable stars.
--Yet far less conducive to poetry.
***
I have been granted a special grace to aid me in my calling. It is a great and wondrous secret, a treasure beyond compare. Yet I may not tell my fellow mortals what it is. They therefore believe that I have nothing, when I am rich beyond my dreams.
***
The only difficulty I face is that I must never touch or spend any of my treasure.
I therefore live as a pauper, though wealthy beyond imagining.
***
They believe me to be aimless. But it is simply that my aim is beyond anyone's reach.
***
They believe me to be ambitionless. But in fact none could possess greater ambition, for my goal lies higher than the tallest mountain peak.
The fact it is impossible to attain only makes it appear that I have failed. But that cannot rightly be called failure which was never possible to begin with.
***
They call me a dreamer. Yes, I say, for my dreams are my only possession. No other riches are attainable to me, and no other riches are desirable.
***
The poet's dreams are not meant to come true. They are meant to be turned into poetry.
***
The gods do not will you to be happy; they will you to be a poet.
--Thus spoke the oracle, and I sighed.
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