It Won't Make You Rich

but that's not why we make art

I’m not sure I’ve ever wanted to be rich.

I know lots of kids who have that dream. I know lots of grown-ups who have that dream. Sure, I’d like to have plenty enough money to eat and drink and be merry, go on a couple vacations, not worry about $9 eggs. That would be wonderful. But that’s it. I don’t want to be rich rich.

In Instructions for Traveling West, Joy Sullivan has a poem entitled “Why Read Poetry if It Won’t Make You Rich?” You should read this poem in your own time, when you’re ready, but here are a few of my favorite lines:

…All at once, you’ll see
the world and want it again:
clothes flapping on the line,
lilacs strewn and seeding, the luck
of worms.

Instructions for Traveling West at sunset

In a similar vein, and again, you should read the poem in its entirety, is Ross Gay’s “Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude” (my favorite poem of all time, so far):

by which I knew upon waking
it was telling me
in no uncertain terms
to bellow forth the tubas and sousaphones,
the whole rusty brass band of gratitude
not quite dormant in my belly—
it said so in a human voice,
“Bellow forth”—
and who among us could ignore such odd
and precise counsel?

I give you these lines of poetry to show you the kind of rich I’d rather be. This kind of grateful, at peace kind of rich. I want to be happy and healthy and for the people around me to be happy and healthy. This kind of rich doesn’t come with zero problems and a lifetime of ease. It comes with the support and love to traverse the hard parts. You cannot buy your problems away with this kind of rich, but you are satisfied. You are grateful.

I don’t read poetry because it will make me rich. I don’t write poetry because it’ll make me rich. I let poetry find me in the moments I need it most. I let a book of poems wash over me. I let a singular poem grip me until I’ve memorized lines and perhaps even tattooed them onto my body. Poetry finds you the way all art finds you: when you need it, where you need it. You are rich by simply letting it be with you, and that’s what we could all use a little more of these days.

---

Weekly R.E.P.O.R.T.

Reading: Not much. It’s a slow reading week, and I’m letting that be okay.

Eating: Girl Scout Cookies

Playing: Benson Boone

Obsessing: The sunshine!
I know I come from the golden state, but I will never tire of the sun after (during?) a Midwest winter.

Recommending: Put your friends in your calendar so you can’t forget when you’re getting coffee or dinner or probably going to hang out.

Treating: Sitting in the sun when I should probably be doing other things.

---

---

That’s all she wrote…

Thanks for reading (or skipping) to the end! This newsletter will be coming to your inbox weekly, but you can read previous editions on Substack. In the meantime, feel free to leave any comments, questions, or your own recommendations and life updates. Write you again soon!