A Writer's Resources

“A writer - and, I believe, generally all persons - must think that whatever happens to him or her is a resource. All things have been given to us for a purpose, and an artist must feel this more intensely. All that happens to us, including our humiliations, our misfortunes, our embarrassments, all is given to us as raw material, as clay, so that we may shape our art.” – Jorge Luis Borges          Borges, born in 1899, was an Argentine essayist, short story writer and poet who knew the value and power of the things within our “personal” world and how beneficial they could be to him as a writer.  For Saturday’s Poem, here are Borges’ thoughts on that topic, vividly portrayed in his award-winning poem,                                              ThingsMy walking stick, small change, key ring, The docile lock and the belatedNotes my few days left will grant No time to read, the cards, the table,A book, in its pages, that pressedViolet, the leavings of an afternoonDoubtless unforgettable, forgotten,The reddened mirror facing to the west Where burns illusory dawn. Many things,Files, sills, atlases, wineglasses, nails,Which serve us, like unspeaking slaves,So blind and so mysteriously secret!They’ll long outlast our oblivion;And never know that we are gone.
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