The Must-Read Book Club: Lisa Bermudez on "Letters to a Young Poet."
Lisa Bermudez: One of my college professors told me I had to read it, so I did, and now it's one I'd put in my Hall of Fame!
YC: Describe the book in five words.
LB: Soul-searching. Inspiring. Deep. Tearjerker. Real-life.
YC: Quote you would live by?
LB: "But only someone who is ready for everything, who doesn't exclude any experience, even the most incomprehensible, will live the relationship with another person as something alive and will himself sound the depths of his own being."
This amazing quote just speaks so much regarding the concept of how we are all so afraid to connect with each other. We have experiences in life, and instead of embracing them and learning from them, we often talk about how we are damaged from them and use that as an excuse to push others and new moments away.
This life is so short and if we are all so afraid to connect and if we keep running away from relationships and friendships as soon as things get muddy, we never collect insight from one another. We never connect back to what draws us to each other.
YC: What resonates most with you about the writing?
LB: It's a beautiful book for writers, thinkers, feelers, and anyone looking for answers to the question of why we are all here with each other and what it all means. The first letter Rilke writes to Franz Xaver Kappus explains how he can't review his work because Kappus must go through it himself. It's such a beautiful moment that expresses how much we need to figure ourselves out and work with ourselves from the inside out instead of always taking advice from the outside in.
You can order Letters to a Young Poet here.
-- Interview by Allison Richard
