A Writer's Moment: 'The music of words'

A Writer's Moment: 'The music of words':   “You have your identity when you find out, not what you can keep your mind on, but what you can't keep your mind off.”  – A. R. Ammons...

'The music of words'

 

“You have your identity when you find out, not what you can keep your mind on, but what you can't keep your mind off.” – A. R. Ammons

 

Born in North Carolina in February of 1926, Ammons was a writing professor at Cornell University where he also authored hundreds of poems up until his death in 2001.  Ammons’ Collected Poems, 1951–1971 won a National Book Award, and his Selected Poems is an excellent introduction to his works  

                  

“Poetry," Ammons said, “is the music of words.”  For Saturday’s Poem, here is Ammons’,

 

Eyesight

                                                                   It was May

before my attention

came to spring and 

 

my word I said

to the southern slopes

I've 

 

missed it, it

came and went before

I got right to see: 

 

don't worry, said the mountain,

try the later northern slopes

or if 

 

you can climb,

climb into spring: but

said the mountain 

 

it's not that way

with all things, some

that go are gone

 

A Writer's Moment: 'I used everything you gave me'

A Writer's Moment: 'I used everything you gave me':   “If you can't make it better, you can still laugh at it.”  – Erma Bombeck   Born in Ohio on this date in 1927, Erma Bombeck was pe...

'I used everything you gave me'

 

“If you can't make it better, you can still laugh at it.” – Erma Bombeck

 

Born in Ohio on this date in 1927, Erma Bombeck was perhaps the “most read” columnist in America and Canada in her lifetime, with more than 30 million readers per week in some 900 newspapers across the two nations. 

 

A self-proclaimed “chronicler of suburban life,” she wrote over 4,000 newspaper columns and published 15 books, most of which became bestsellers under titles like The Grass is Always Greener Over the Septic Tank.   She died at age 69 after battling a lifelong kidney problem complicated further by a bout with breast cancer.  Even during treatment she found humor, once noting, “Never go to a doctor whose office plants have died.”  

 

Bombeck’s writing began at the University of Dayton where she worked for the school newspaper.  After college she wrote for the Dayton Herald but said “straight news” was not her forte'.  “I was terrible at straight items,” she said.  “When I wrote obituaries, my mother said the only thing I ever got them to do was die in alphabetical order.”   

 

Her writing popularity led to regular appearances on radio and television and even as a catalyst for the 1986 Rose Parade theme – “A Celebration of Laughter” – where she was named Grand Marshal.  Bombeck also wrote eloquently for human rights and against poverty, disease and hunger.   Her book I Want to Grow Hair, I Want to Grow Up, I Want to Go to Boise: Children Surviving Cancer raised millions for medical causes and received the American Cancer Society’s Medal of Honor.

While battling her own illnesses, she said she planned to write as long as possible.  “When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, 'I used everything you gave me'.”

A Writer's Moment: 'Using history as the writing engine'

A Writer's Moment: 'Using history as the writing engine':   “Once you have your characters, they tell you what to write, you don't tell them.” – Alan Furst    Born in New York City on this ...

'Using history as the writing engine'

 

“Once you have your characters, they tell you what to write, you don't tell them.” – Alan Furst 

 

Born in New York City on this date in 1941, Furst is arguably the “inventor” of the historical spy novel.  And, he said he doesn’t write plots but rather writes around history and historical things to create his books.  “I use history as the engine that drives everything.”   

  

After earning degrees from Oberlin College and Penn State, Furst returned to New York where he took writing classes at Columbia and worked at Esquire magazine.  After trying his hand at several novellas and a novel, which were modestly successful, he took a job at the International Herald Tribune in Paris.  It was there that he began working on his historical spy novels.  To date, he has written 15 of them -- known as the "Night Soldiers" series -- mostly set in the late 1930s and World War II and all loosely connected.  His most recent is Under Occupation.

Furst, who now lives on Long Island, said it takes him 3 months of research and 9 months of work to produce a book. “When I start writing, I do 2 pages a day; if I'm gonna do 320, that's 160 days.”  His writing advice is to find a time, place and idea and make it your own.  Then do the research to make it believable.   “People know accuracy when they read it,” he said.  “They can feel it.”

A Writer's Moment: 'Reflecting life as you see it'

A Writer's Moment: 'Reflecting life as you see it':   “I think that when you're writing fiction what you're doing is reflecting life as you see it, and putting down how you think and h...