Keep going. Day after day, keep going. When you get kicked in the teeth, keep going. When the muse looks the other way, keep going. When you don't get the applause you deserve, keep going. When the hacks speed by in their wax cars peddling an easier way, keep going. When the clowns fatten their wallets dancing for the algorithm, keep going. When the critics spew venom from the safety of the stands, keep going. When the books you write go unread, keep going. When the albums you cut fall on deaf ears, keep going. When life takes you out at the knees, keep going. When depression descends like lucifer, keep going. When misfortune strikes like a knife in the dark, keep going. When you rub your fingers raw searching for a light on the wall, keep going. Remember you are a flame. Remember you are a bolt of lightning. Remember you are a jar full of fireflies dancing atop a tree stump. Keep going. When you find greys in your beard let it remind you of wolves, keep going. When the sins and shortcomings of your past haunt you like Nosferatu, fetch an iron stake and keep going. When the worries of your future envelop you like a parade of fog marching at dawn, go slowly but keep going. When the possibility of quitting is as tempting as pair of lips pressed against your ear, recall those words by Joan Didion. You have to pick the places you don't walk away from. Keep going. When you have gone as far as you can go and you fear your can go no further, recite those lines by Robert Frost. The woods are lovely, dark and deep, but I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep, and miles to go before I sleep. Keep going. If not for any other reason than to have the privilege to say at the foot of your grave that all your life you never let up, keep going. Keep going. Keep going. Please, keep going.