A Writer's Moment: The poetic 'songs of life'

A Writer's Moment: The poetic 'songs of life':   “Whether you listen to a piece of music, or a poem, or look at a picture or a jug, or a piece of sculpture, what matters about it is not w...

The poetic 'songs of life'

 “Whether you listen to a piece of music, or a poem, or look at a picture or a jug, or a piece of sculpture, what matters about it is not what it has in common with others of its kind, but what is singularly its own.” – Basil Bunting

 

Bunting was born to start the century (March of 1900) in which he became one of Great Britain’s most significant modernist poets.  He started writing poetry as a child, cementing his reputation with his 1966 autobiographical masterpiece Briggflatts   He wrote and published right up to his death in 1985.

 

A lifelong music lover, he often emphasized the sonic qualities of poetry and liked reading his poetry aloud.  Many recordings of him reading are widely available.  For Saturday’s Poem – from Briggflatts – here is Bunting’s,

 

                                    CODA

A strong song tows
us, long earsick.
Blind, we follow
rain slant, spray flick
to fields we do not know.

Night, float us.
Offshore wind, shout,
ask the sea
what’s lost, what’s left,
what horn sunk,
what crown adrift?

Where we are who knows
of kings who sup
while day fails? Who,
swinging his axe
to fell kings, guesses
where we go?

 

 

 

 

A Writer's Moment: 'Life . . . As We See It'

A Writer's Moment: 'Life . . . As We See It':   “The function of the novelist . . . is to comment upon life as he sees it.”  – Frank Norris   Born in Chicago in March of 1870, Norris ...

'Life . . . As We See It'

 

“The function of the novelist . . . is to comment upon life as he sees it.” – Frank Norris
 

Born in Chicago in March of 1870, Norris wrote as a “naturalist,” shocking many readers with his sometimes brutal and graphic depictions.    

 

The author of 11 novels, 3 nonfiction books and numerous essays, he is perhaps best known for his trilogy The Octopus, The Pit, and The Wolf  -- the latter only partially completed when he suddenly and unexpectedly died in 1902 from complications while in surgery.  The 3 stories follow the journey of a crop of wheat from its planting in California to its ultimate consumption as bread in Western Europe.  Along the way, much suffering and death follow the storyline and its key characters as greed and harsh conditions often stand in their way.

 

Sometimes criticized for his depictions of suffering caused by corrupt and greedy turn-of-the-century corporate monopolies, he stood solidly behind his writing for both its in-depth research and for being morally correct and truthful.   And, he is credited with having an impact on influential leaders like Theodore Roosevelt, who cited Norris in his efforts to reform the big corporations.

 

“Truth,” Norris wrote, “is a thing immortal and perpetual, and it gives to us a beauty that fades not away in time.”

 

 

 

A Writer's Moment: 'It's the carpentry of it all'

A Writer's Moment: 'It's the carpentry of it all':   “Ultimately, literature is nothing but carpentry. With both you are working with reality, a material just as hard as wood.”  – Gabriel Gar...

'It's the carpentry of it all'

 

“Ultimately, literature is nothing but carpentry. With both you are working with reality, a material just as hard as wood.” – Gabriel Garcia Marquez

 

Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter and journalist Marquez, born on this date in 1927, was one of the most significant authors of the 20th century.   Winner of the 1982 Nobel Prize in Literature, he actually started his career as a journalist, writing many acclaimed nonfiction works and journalistic short stories before turning to fiction. 

 

Best known for his novels One Hundred Years of Solitude and Love in the Time of Cholera, he also was a fierce critic of Colombia’s intense and often corrupt political scene and not afraid to skewer politicians in his writings.

 

He often said the most important influencers on his writing were American authors William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway.   “Faulkner is a writer who has had much to do with my soul,” he said, “but Hemingway is the one who had the most to do with my craft - not simply for his books, but for his astounding knowledge of the aspect of craftsmanship in the science of writing.”   Marquez was equally lauded by fellow writers for his keen eye to detail and skill as a master storyteller. 

 

“What matters in life is not what happens to you,” he said, “but what you remember and how you remember it.”

A Writer's Moment: 'A favorite novel for each stage of life'

A Writer's Moment: 'A favorite novel for each stage of life':   “I think ever since I started to read, there have been favorite novels for different stages of my life. And one is never bumped out of pla...

'A favorite novel for each stage of life'

 

“I think ever since I started to read, there have been favorite novels for different stages of my life. And one is never bumped out of place to yield to another. Instead, I just add to my favorite shelves.” – Robin Hobb

 

Born in California on this date in 1952 Hobb is actually Margaret Astrid Lindholm, who decided she’d rather be known by the names Robin Hobb and Megan Lindholm while writing.   Since 1995 she’s written five different series set in the "Realm of the Elderlings", for which she earned the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement in 2021. 

Hobb’s initial writing successes were in children’s stories, writing as Megan Lindholm, the name she continued using when she moved into short stories set in the Fantasy world.  But when she decided to go to longer, epic-style Fantasy, she took on the Robin Hobb title.

 

Lindholm has lived in Alaska since age 10 with just a one-year move to Denver when she started her college studies.  She has been writing since her teen years and is noted for a style that is built from the main character outward.

 

“As the character talks and moves, the world around him is slowly revealed, just like dollying a camera back for a wider look at things,” she explained.  “So all my stories start with a character, and that character introduces setting, culture, conflict, government, economy... all of it, through his or her eyes.”

A Writer's Moment: 'Fasten your seat belt and write on'

A Writer's Moment: 'Fasten your seat belt and write on':   “I think we have a great deal of mythology around writing. We believe that only a few people can really do it. I wrote a book called  The ...

'Fasten your seat belt and write on'

 

“I think we have a great deal of mythology around writing. We believe that only a few people can really do it. I wrote a book called The Right to Write.  In it, I argued that all of us have the capacity to write. That it's as normal to write as it is to speak.” – Julia Cameron

 

Born in Libertyville, IL on this date in 1948, Cameron has been a teacher, artist, poet, playwright, filmmaker, composer, journalist and author, most famous for her books on writing and creativity.  The Artist's Way, her first book and massive bestseller, came out in 1992 and she has now written a remarkable 36 nonfiction books, 2 novels, 6 plays, 4 books of poetry and many short stories, essays and screenplays.

 

Bookending her first success, she published Living the Artist’s Way: An Intuitive Path to Greater Creativity in 2024 on the heels of another successful “How To” book Write for Life: A Toolkit for Writers in 2023.

 

Cameron started her writing career at the Washington Post before moving over to Rolling Stone magazine.  It was there that she met director Martin Scorsese and after a somewhat tumultuous marriage, they divorced but continued a close relationship, including collaborating on three films.

 

“I have learned, as a rule of thumb, never to ask whether you can do something,” she said.  “Say, instead, that you are doing it. Then fasten your seat belt. The most remarkable things follow.“

A Writer's Moment: 'A dance for success'

A Writer's Moment: 'A dance for success': “My inspiration for writing (was) all the wonderful books that I read as a child.   For those of us who write, when we find a wonderful book...

'A dance for success'

“My inspiration for writing (was) all the wonderful books that I read as a child.   For those of us who write, when we find a wonderful book written by someone else, we don't really get jealous, we get inspired, and that's kind of the mark of what a good writer is.” –  Patricia MacLachlan

 

Born in Cheyenne, WY on this date in 1938, MacLachlan won the Newbery Medal her inspiring novel (and series of books) Sarah, Plain and Tall, also adapted into a “Hallmark Hall of Fame” television movie.

 

The author of some three dozen books, the last published in 2022 the year of her death, she was a longtime board member of the National Children's Book and Literacy Alliance and tireless spokesperson on behalf of literacy, literature, and libraries,

 

MacLachlan said growing up “on the prairie” shaped both who she was and how she learned to portray things.    And while her “Sarah” series earned her the most acclaim, her 2015 novel The Truth of Me also earned many awards.  That book is a celebration how unique "small truths" make each of us magical and brave in our own ways, and a wonderful example of her poetic and poignant style that won her legions of followers.

“I have great editors and I always have,” she modestly said of her writing success. “Somehow, great editors ask the right questions or pose things to you that get you to write better. It's a dance between you, your characters, and your editor.”

A Writer's Moment: 'From the deep thickets of self'

A Writer's Moment: 'From the deep thickets of self':   “One reason to write a poem is to flush from the deep thickets of the self some thought, feeling, comprehension, question, music, you didn...

'From the deep thickets of self'

 

“One reason to write a poem is to flush from the deep thickets of the self some thought, feeling, comprehension, question, music, you didn't know was in you, or in the world.” – Jane Hirshfield

 

Born in New York on Feb. 24, 1953, Hirshfield has authored 10 award-winning books of poetry.  Her most recent is 2023’s The Asking: New & Selected Poems.  She also has done a number of major translations and wrote or edited several collections of essays.  For Saturday’s Poem, here is Hirshfield’s,

 

                             A Person Protests to Fate

 

                                 A person protests to fate:

                                    "The things you have caused
                                    me most to want
                                    are those that furthest elude me."

                                    Fate nods.
                              Fate is sympathetic.

                                To tie the shoes, button a shirt,
                                are triumphs
                                for only the very young,
                                the very old.

                             During the long middle:

                                conjugating a rivet
                                mastering tango
                                training the cat to stay off the table
                                preserving a single moment longer than this one
                                continuing to wake whatever has happened the day before

                             and the penmanships love practices inside the body.