[Lyric] Do You Have Any Advice For Those of Us Just Starting Out? (Ron Koertge)

Give up sitting dutifully at your desk. Leave
Your house or apartment. Go out into the world

It's all right to carry a notebook but a cheap
One is best, with pages the color of weak tea
And on the front a kitten or a space ship

Avoid any enclosed space where more than
Three people are wearing turtlenecks. Beware
Any snow-covered chalet with deer tracks
Across the muffled tennis courts

Not surprisingly, libraries are a good place to write
And the perfect place in a library is near an aisle
Where a child a year or two old is playing as his
Mother browses the ranks of the dead

Often he will pull books from the bottom shelf
The title, the author's name, the brooding photo
On the flap mean nothing. Red book on black, gray
Book on brown, he builds a tower. And the higher
It gets, the wider he grins
You who asked for advice, listen: When the tower
Falls, be like that child. Laugh so loud everybody
In the world frowns and says, "Shhhh."

Then start again