A Writing Tip by Bob McNeil
POEMS WITH PURPOSE

Throughout history, numerous luminaries in every art form have given their talents to improve existence. Their voices helped abolitionists, suffragettes, and civil rights activists.

Some months back, my lung collapsed, and I faced a painful end. Pneumothorax inspired my writing to venture beyond self-aggrandizement. From the hospital window, awaiting surgery, I saw homeless men and women. That sight made my bed less comfortable; it made the hospital food even more unpalatable. Right there, at that moment, I decided my meager literary and graphic efforts would raise funds for those in need.

Most of my work before the operation illustrated the problems in the world, but none of my emotional cries in essays, poems, stories, and drawings offered solutions to immediate ills. I am pleased to say that is no longer true: my book, Compositions on Compassion and Other Emotions (Flexible Press, 2023), funds the National Alliance to End Homelessness. Now, I breathe with greater purpose, knowing my humble creations help others.

I offer the poems below, which appear in my book, in the that hope they may inspire others to remain steadfast in their own creative endeavors.

A Pertinacious Philosophy

Regardless of whether
your being’s balloon is
touching the troposphere
or deflating on the salt flats,
continue to write.
If you are as dour
as a mourner,
write about it.
If your days
possess the jubilation
that a lottery winner knows,
write about it.
Chronicle who and what you are
before you are no more.
In the rental home
known as life,
remember the pending end
of your lease.
Therefore, before relocating to a necropolis,
create at the rate rabbits procreate.
Calendars do not determine your days.
The number of poems, stories,
essays, drawings, and performances
define your time as an artist.
From my point of view,
all artists should use that approach
as time encroaches.

The Recipe to Be a Writer

Besides a pencil or pen,
Paper, and imagination,
You need the ears of a moth,
An avian’s vision,
A philomath’s brain,
A Hippocratic heart,
And an empath’s spirit.
Then mix in incidents from your life.
Let it all simmer,
And you’ll write.
You’ll write.

Bob McNeil is a writer, editor, cartoonist, and spoken word artist. In 2023, Flexible Press published his book composed of essays, illustrations, poems, and stories, titled Compositions on Compassion and Other Emotions. Proceeds from this work fund the National Alliance to End Homelessness.