Lew Welch and Blasphemy (w/ a Nod Toward Gregory Corso)

"...There is no way to cheat, unless you go to too many schools, and try to be a poet.

Try to be a poet? What a blasphemy!

Unless you mean, as Gregory Corso did when he got the calling in prison in New York, to use the native speech which is as much a part of you as your eyes and hair, and mean to use it to the end of truth and life (against all odds in a deranged world), to use his speech, your own speech, the language of your father and your mother and your friends, the primary tool of all your actions toward all your wants and needs, to use this speech as a weapon, a tool, a singer's voice, the means to total sharing of all your Mind, unless you mean to do that, then try[ing] to be a poet is blasphemy."

-- Lew Welch from his essay "Language Is Speech" collected in How I Work as a Poet