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A poet-artist’s advice to parents

 

A poet-artist’s advice to parents

 

If you are to give a budding artist one coloured pen first

What will it be?

Let em choose ONE

& play with it with it till the ink runs out

If it does

Then take em to a stationary shop

& let em choose two or three colours

 

A lot of parents kill the spark

By saturating their child’s passion, their curiosity

With too many instruments, lessons etc too quickly

Passions come intrinsically

Don’t spoil your kid's

Or watch how soon they’ll quit

How soon their imagination will dry up

& just become another consumer in the wall

Let your kid’s native passion

Drive their artistic journey

It’s not about you & your reflected pride

 

40 years later

Since I first picked up a pen

With no thought in mind

I’m still proceeding with a supermarket pen & paper

I love my instruments of postulations & wanderings

& look forward to every day’s play

 

Oh yeah, & as my dad did with me:

Take em to the local library

& borrow a book for yourself too

 

 

Published & Copyright Malachi Doyle 2025.

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