"Letters to a Young Poet"

In writing, sometimes the best advice is to ignore artstic advice. Rainer Maria Rilke writes:  "You ask whether your verses are good...You compare them with other poems, and you are disturbed when certain editors reject your efforts. Now (since you have allowed me to advise you) I beg you to give up all that. You are looking outward, and that above all you should not do now. Nobody can counsel and help you, nobody. There is only one single way. Go into yourself."

- from Letters to a Young Poet