January 2 - The Author's Creed

This was a poem I wrote as a "prayer" for a project in which I had to create my own New Religious Movement.  I had a lot of fun coming up with a religion, and this was one of the prayers I wrote for the occasion....

I believe in the Pen, weapon almighty,

            The maker of story and poem

And in the Written Word, it’s holy Son, our Idol.

Who was conceived in passion,

            Born of a virgin page,

            Suffered under editing and peer review,

            Was abandoned, ignored, and hidden,

It descended into a forgotten file.

On the third day It was remembered.

It ascended into excellence,

            And sitteth at the front of our portfolio, a bible in the true sense of the word,

            From thence it shall come to stir and awaken the joy and the suffering in the reader.

I believe in the lyric of all poetry,

            The holy soul of fiction,

            The communion of metaphor and simile,

            The forgiveness of thinly veiled real people in creative non-fiction,

            The resurrection of the celebration of writing,

            And the everlasting soul of inspiration.

Amen.