A Writer's Moment: 'It begins in childhood'

A Writer's Moment: 'It begins in childhood':   “I believe that poetry begins in childhood and that a poet who can remember his own childhood exactly can, and should, communicate to chil...

'It begins in childhood'

 

“I believe that poetry begins in childhood and that a poet who can remember his own childhood exactly can, and should, communicate to children.” – William Jay Smith

 

Born in Louisiana in April 1918, Smith was the U.S. Poet Laureate from 1968-70, and Poet-in-Residence at Williams College for many years.   The author of more than 50 books of poetry for adults and children, including the multiple award-winning children’s book Laughing Time, he was twice honored as a finalist for the National Book Award.  For Saturday’s Poem, here is Smith’s,

                                    The World Below The Window

The geraniums I left last night on the windowsill,
To the best of my knowledge now, are out there still,
And will be there as long as I think they will.

And will be there as long as I think that I
Can throw the window open on the sky,
A touch of geranium pink in the tail of my eye;

As long as I think I see, past leaves green-growing,
Barges moving down a river, water flowing,
Fulfillment in the thought of thought outgoing,

Fulfillment in the sight of sight replying,
Of sound in the sound of small birds southward flying,
In life life-giving, and in death undying.

 

A Writer's Moment: 'Somebody's daydream'

A Writer's Moment: 'Somebody's daydream':   “Treat your life like something to be sculpted.”  – Larry Niven   Born in Los Angeles in April of 1938, Laurence van Cott Niven has be...

'Somebody's daydream'

 

“Treat your life like something to be sculpted.” – Larry Niven

 

Born in Los Angeles in April of 1938, Laurence van Cott Niven has been a full-time writer since the early 1960s, starting with a well-received short story “The Coldest Place.”   He’s built a reputation as the world’s leading “Hard Sci-Fi” writer, especially for his worldwide bestselling series Ringworld, winner of the Hugo, Locus, Ditmar, and Nebula awards.   Not welded to one genre, Niven also is known for including elements of Detective Fiction and Adventure into his stories.  

 

Niven’s is credited with “creating” several alien species, one of the best-known being The Kzin, featured in a series of 15 books collectively called “The Man-Kzin Wars.”

 

The author of 54 novels (the most recent being Starborn & Godsons), he’s also written several screenplays and television scripts, and dozens of short stories, novellas and comic book stories.  Legendary Sci-Fi writer Arthur C Clarke called Niven his favorite author – a key accolade in its own right.

 

“In the world of words, the imagination is one of the forces of nature,” Niven said.  “Everything starts as somebody’s daydream.”

A Writer's Moment: What first must burn inside

A Writer's Moment: What first must burn inside:   “I'm just going to write because I cannot help it.” – Charlotte Bronte   Born in England on this date in 1816, Bronte lived to ju...

What first must burn inside

 

“I'm just going to write because I cannot help it.” – Charlotte Bronte

 

Born in England on this date in 1816, Bronte lived to just age 39 before dying of typhus during pregnancy.  The oldest of 3 Bronte sisters who survived into adulthood (2 others died of tuberculosis), she and her surviving sisters Emily and Anne each wrote novels that are considered classics of English literature. 

Her writing career formally began when she, Emily and Anne co-published a book of poetry under the pseudonym Bell – Charlotte as Currer; Emily as Ellis; and Anne as Acton.  Their poems did not succeed but the three women’s subsequent novels – Jane Eyre from Charlotte; Wuthering Heights from Emily; and Agnes Grey from Anne – were wildly successful and led to their revealing their real names to the writing world.   With an innovative style that combined naturalism with gothic melodrama, Charlotte’s writing especially plowed new ground.

Her remarkable lyrical style gave us such statements as “The soul, fortunately, has an interpreter - often an unconscious, but still a truthful interpreter - in the eye.”  And “The human heart has hidden treasures, in secret kept, in silence sealed; the thoughts, the hopes, the dreams, the pleasures, whose charms were broken if revealed.”

“What you want to ignite in others,” she said of her hopes as a writer, “must first burn inside yourself.” 

A Writer's Moment: 'Fighting through life's travails'

A Writer's Moment: 'Fighting through life's travails':   “To throw oneself to the side of the oppressed is the only dignified thing to do in life.” – Edwin Markham Born in Oregon on this date ...