They:

Irrational! Insensible!
So fully irresponsible!
You really want to waste your days
In writing, for which no one pays?
You have the schooling, brains, and skills
Enough to pay a hamlet’s bills.
And yet you squander all your time
In drafting up a silly rhyme.
You were the envy of the town,
And soon you will be but a clown.
As all you have is family name,
You will be shortly off the game
And off the board – a captured pawn!
Your every single friend has gone
Ahead of you, ahead in life.
You will not even get a wife.
Renounce this crazy habit now.
Become again the money cow.

Me:

I have been writing fewer lines
Compared to what I truly can,
And thus have wasted all the time
Enrolled in apprehensions that
I cannot write beyond a bar.
And yet, if anything, I see
I write a good amount of verse
If, on a bet, I sit and think
And think on paper, not in mind.
I have a grip on pen and page.
I have a grip on form and style.
And when I get a grip on me
I can produce a decent batch
Of poems, stories, two-in-ones.
So, every day I will permit
Myself to sit and scribble on
For longer than it seems alright
To linger on the writing desk.