Drew Myron's Blog, page 43

Try This: Rev, Write, Return

I haven’t been writing, I admit to a friend.

[ Cue the fears: Am I still a writer? Was I ever a writer? Do I even like to write? ]

I've been writing nearly all my life — half of it as a person who actually gets paid to write — and I've yet to unravel the mysteries of the writing juice. As in: how to rev it, keep it, make it come back.

Yesterday, after a long dormant spell, I felt a rush of words. You know that rush. An astonished levitation, in which you are following the words rather than forcing them. The head moves faster than the hand and you ride the wave of word flow.

Oh, the exhilaration!

This morning the zing returned. For just a few minutes, enough to write several pages and restore belief.

[ Cue the relief: I'm not a one-trick pony after all! ]

I still don't know what turns the writing juice inexplicably off and on, but two things helped in this recent bout:

Write the same starting line for consecutive days.

Find a line that engages, and do a freewrite using it as a starting line. If you get stuck, repeat your line again and again but keep the hand moving. Return the next day using the same line. You may see, as I did, how the line takes you places, shifts your perspective.

I used this line from Transformation by Adam Zagajewski: I haven’t written a single poem in months.

Write in response to art.

Though we live in a hyper-visual world, I can still go weeks without a strong reaction to an image. And then, mysteriously, a painting or photo will stir me.

This morning, I began my day at The Storialist, and was unexpectedly compelled. Suddenly, I was writing with a fever, covering pages and years. Again, I experienced the beautiful floating, in which I was not in control but standing aside allowing the words to tumble.

Is the writing any good? Probably not. But it doesn't matter. The juice is back, along with my belief in expression and myself. Though this feeling may be fleeting, it is enough for today. It is, really, everything.

Transformation

I haven't written a single poem
in months.
I've lived humbly, reading the paper,
pondering the riddle of power
and the reasons for obedience.
I've watched sunsets
(crimson, anxious),
I've heard the birds grow quiet
and night's muteness.
I've seen sunflowers dangling
their heads at dusk, as if a careless hangman
had gone strolling through the gardens.
September's sweet dust gathered
on the windowsill and lizards
hid in the bends of walls.
I've taken long walks,
craving one thing only:
lightning,
transformation,
you.

— Adam Zagajewski

*Thanks to Calm Things for introducing me to this poem. 

 

Want more?
Try This: Scratch Out
Try This: Steal
Try This: Poetry Poker
Try This: Postcard Poems
Try This: Alphabet Poem
Try This: Morning Read & Write
Try This: Book Spine Poetry

 

On Sunday: Stillness

My education had taught me quite well to talk,
but I don't think it had taught me to listen.
And my schools had taught me quite well
 to sort of push myself forward in the world,
 but it never taught me to erase myself.

 

— Pico Iyer
The Art of Stillness

via On Being

 

 

Thankful Thursday: Happify

Hope, by Mary Baker Eddy

Favorite new phrase: Hope happifies life.

My friends are cleaning out their past.

They gave me two old books. Beautiful books with ornate typography and thin, delicate pages that rustle with the quiet preservation of poems.

Their trash is now my treasure.

Thank you.


Please join me for Thankful Thursday, a weekly pause to express appreciation for the people, places, things & more. What are you thankful for today?

 

Poetry In Action

The closing paragraph of Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy's ruling on gay marriage. Kennedy wrote the decision legalizing same-sex marriage in the United States.

Read more at Slate.

 

Summer of Insatiable Hunger

It's summertime and I'm racing through reading material.

Novels, poetry, memoir, magazines, newspapers, manuals, cereal boxes, candy wrappers . . . The good, bad, monumental and mundane, I'm word-hungry. 

After a (long, dark, dismal) run of ehh, I've recently lucked into some good books. Let's credit the solstice. Long light, long days, open mind. As always, timing is everything.

These books hit me at the right place, right time. And isn't that how it goes?

The Diver’s Clothes Lie Empty
by Vendela Vida

An absorbing new novel, best enjoyed in one full sweep. Vida employs a risky approach: an entire novel written in second person narrative (You are growing increasingly panicked — you are in Morocco and don't have your backpack . . .). While initially off-putting, the style creates a tension of intimacy and distance for an ultimately engaging story.

 

The Edge of Sadness
by Edwin O’Connor

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1962 , this is a quiet novel gently tendering themes of forgiveness, redemption and the value of revising perceptions. I didn’t love it, but I appreciated it, and weeks after completing the book, I’m still thinking of it. That means something, I’m just not sure what.

 

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Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns)
by Mindy Kaling

You know Mindy Kaling from “The Office,” the television show that furthered the mock-documentary style of serial storytelling. A stronger writer than actor, in this memoir-essay collection, she’s sharp and funny, offering masterful self-deprecation without the usual cloying aftertaste. Easy, breezy, fun.

 

What are you reading? What's snagged you at just the right time and place?

Thankful Thursday: Everywhere a sign

From pebble to peak, from profound to profane, it's time again for Thankful Thursday.

Because attention attracts gratitude and gratitude expands joy, it's time to slice through the ugly and get to the good:

In my ongoing attraction to signs (as in: horoscopes, billboards, messages), this week I drove past this doozy.

Rushed and full-throttled, this reminder is just what I needed to slow the frazzle in my head.

Odd, eye-catching and true. 

On this Thankful Thursday, I'm grateful for signs.

 

What are you thankful for today?

 

You talking to me?

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Those who have anxiety, those who are shy, or nervous, seem to be the most persistent seekers of calm,” says Shawna Lemay.

“We are those who know how to sit alone, trying to regain our sense of equilibrium. We are drawn to the poetic, the contemplative, to reading, to the rituals of the everyday. We need a certain amount of time alone, we attempt to make appointments with ourselves that we can keep.”

 

Feeling anxious? Head over to 3 Good Books to get your literary prescription. I asked Lemay to share her favorite books on the theme of calm — something she knows quite a lot about, having written a book of essays and a blog on the topic.

 

To blather is easy, to edit divine

I have to tell you,

there are times when

the sun strikes me

like a gong,

and I remember everything,

even your ears.

             — Dorothea Grossman

 

This year, brevity meet clarity.

The Denver County Fair Poetry Contest is seeking Summer Shorts — poems of 10 lines or less. *

Even after all this time

the sun never says to the earth,

"You owe me."

Look what happens

with a love like that,

It lights the whole sky.

                          — Hafiz

 

Writing short is a challenge. Shorts require the potent blend of profound and precise. Or funny and tight. Or clever and clear. That can be tough stuff. To blather is easy, to edit divine.

a bee

staggers out

of the peony

        — Basho

Do you write short? Have you a short poem to share? And tell me, what's the key to making a short poem sing?

 

* Lucky me, I'm the Director of Poetry for this fun occasion.

 

Thankful Thursday: Falling Off

[image error]Art by Shirley McPhillips

At first, I collected gratitudes easily:

Thank you for coffee made by someone who loves me.
Thank you for the thrift shop score (two skirts!)
Thank you for a good sleep.
Thank you for warm sun.

As the week wore on, my gratitude weakened:

Thanks for getting me to the gas station before I ran out of gas.
Thanks that I didn't break my arm while rollerblading (yes, I'm living in 1995).
Thank god these jeans still fit (but barely).

By yesterday, my gratitude devolved to grumbles:

Why is this line so long?
How hard is it to return a phone call?
Do I have to do everything?

Like exercise and good health, it's easy to take the high road when you're already walking in the light. One stumble and you fall away, gratitude and cheer clattering along with you. Gray skies, scuffed knees and sour spirit.

I don't have a cure.

But this morning I gazed upon this card, made just for me by a poet-friend correspondent, and thought, "Well, isn't that nice?" 

Nice makes the world turn. One nice leads to another nice. Nice keeps me on the path.

Thank you.

 

Because attention attracts gratitude and gratitude expands joy, it's time for Thankful Thursday. Please join me.
What are you thankful for today?

   

Things I Didn't Tell Her

The other day I sent a graduation gift to a girl I've never met.

It's that time of the year — commencement season.

Along with the gift (a book, of course), I wrote a short note. Days later, in my mind, that note expanded. Turns out I was writing to her, and myself, and to many others making their way:

Dear Graduate,

Congratulations! We've never met, but I know your mother has worked hard to give you everything she never had, most notably a loving push to higher education.

That's big. Please step bravely, kindly & with appreciation into this new stage of your life.

Sound preachy? Maybe, but just indulge me for a bit. I'm tendering a few nuggets of advice that may ease the sometimes rocky road ahead:

1.
You don't know everything (and who would want to?)

In the scheme of the universe, you've been around for a split second. The world is wide open, and so is your mind. Try to keep it wide awake and willing. Listen, absorb, ask questions, and listen more. Veer away from hard and fast opinions. Give yourself time. Consider many sides. Know that not knowing is the best knowing of all. 

2.
Keep a secret (in fashion and in life)

Secrets are good. Not the I-have-a-second-family kind of secret, or stashing-whiskey-in-the-garage sort of thing, but more like this: The Secret Life by Stephen Dunn.

The world is burdened with overshare. In fashion, the stylish are those who choose their emphasis (don't show leg and cleavage; choose one, and then choose carefully), and so you, too, must keep something close, covered. Mystery wins.

Fashion tip No. 2: Showing shoulder is classy; showing breast is not.

3.
Say I'm sorry

You're gonna mess up. We all do. The key is to apologize — without defensiveness or excuses. Don't worm your way through a faux apology ("I'm sorry you feel that way"). No, no, no! Own up and express genuine remorse.  

And while you're at it, learn empathy. This is where compassion and kindness take root. Empathy informs and heightens our sense of responsibility. 

4.
You're not special

Well, yes, of course you are special in that one-of-a-kind snowflake way. But let's not get bigheaded. David McCullough Jr, a high school teacher, explains it best.

5.
Give thanks

I'm not alone in my love of the thank you note. Jimmy Fallon writes one every week. Leah Dieterich writes one every day.

"In the process of opening a note, feeling the paper, seeing the imperfection of the writing, reading the message in another person’s voice, you actually feel like you have a piece of that person in your hand,” says a 20-something thank-you-note-writer in "The Found Art of Thank You Notes."

We all like to feel appreciated, and the act of expressing gratitude increases your connection to others — and makes the recipient feel good too. Bonus points for handwritten notes.

6.
You're never as fat as you think you are.
(But more exercise won't kill you).

I've spent my life feeling hefty. And when I look back at photos, I wasn't fat. The mind can be so cruel.  

I don't know you, but I bet you're not fat. And I hope you've never worried about your weight. But you are female so the chances are good that you've experienced the body image torture that saddles so many.

Let's skip the platitudes and positive thinking. Here's what worked for me: Find a physical activity that you enjoy — swim, ski, bike, yoga, dance, run, paddle — and then have fun doing it. This is a cure for both mind and body. And if, like me, you're always looking for ways to do less and eat more, just do more. Really, it's that simple. And that hard.

And maybe that's the best advice of all: do more.

Don't fret and fritter. Don't delay. Just do more. Love more. Listen more. Feel more. Live more.

That last tip should cover you for life.

With love & hope,

Drew

p.s. This was fun. Let's do it again before graduate school.