Improv #2 - Mother & Child Sestina

Improv #2 - Career

Improv words: up, career, heart, torch, listens, nowhere

Mother calls on Sundays, says: "Listen up,
Child, you've got to think about your career.
It's not enough to just follow your heart.
Work, in the arts, is like a guttering torch --
It burns to ash; be the child who listens,
Not the one who struggles to go nowhere."

"Mother," I think but don't say, "Nowhere
Is where I want to be -- why fight & climb up
Corporate ladders? One person who listens
Is enough to validate my career.
Writing is a compulsion, no mere torch
But a neverending flame in my heart."

"You're sensitive, child, but harden your heart,
The world's suffering will get you nowhere.
You need my guidance -- let me be your torch,
I know the world and how it messes you up
When one lacks focus as you do. Career
Is not a search for the one who listens."

"I wish I had a mother who listens;
Rejection from publishers hurts my heart
Far less than your ignoring my career.
I know you think that I'm going nowhere,
But my new book will sell, so please cheer up.
I have no choice but to follow my torch."

"A vocation is a passionate torch,
It's true, and finding someone who listens
Seems vital to youth: but lift yourself up,
Don't let others rule your life and your heart.
I just worry. Writing might lead nowhere
But disappointment. It's a hard career."

"At least you admit that it's a career
Now, and believe that I'll follow that torch.
There's nothing I'd rather be, and nowhere
Else I'd go. At least my mother listens
Once I bolster the nerve to speak my heart.
That creates confidence to lift me up."

"My children: bright and smart, going nowhere --
I wish I trusted your current career."

"Well then, mother, let this thought lift you up --
My vocation is, in life, my new torch.
I will write until everyone listens,
Sharing the words which appear in my heart."