"Spend it all," by Annie Dillard

What follows below is an excerpt from Dillard’s classic, The Writing Life, laid out as a poem for your reading pleasure.

One of the few things I know
about writing is this:
spend it all, shoot it, play it, lose it,
all, right away, every time.

Do not hoard what seems good
for a later place in the book,
or for another book;
give it, give it all, give it now.

The impulse to save
something good
for a better place later
is the signal to spend it now.

Something more will arise
for later, something better.
These things fill from behind,
from beneath, like well water.

Similarly, the impulse to keep
to yourself what you have learned
is not only shameful, it is destructive.

Anything you do not give
freely and abundantly
becomes lost to you.

You open your safe
and find ashes.

+ Annie Dillard